Your Notes from the Garden...

A few notes follow from the home opener at Madison Square Garden. It was the 3rd straight home opener I have attended (the previous two also being season openers) and the first in which a Czech player did not score a goal in under 30 seconds.

First off, I think either Aaron Voros or Brandon Dubinsky will hurt themselves this season if they keep celebrating goals like they do, although I love the enthusiasm (and I love that line with them and Nik Zherdev). Voros had an Ovechkin-like glass pound, and Dubinsky slid, fell, raised up, and got tackled by Voros.

Secondly, the worst item for sale that I saw was not the $5 16 ounce bottle of water (a 32 oz. soda is cheaper... go figure), but rather the $28 mini-bobble-head set. My friend Dan said it was on sale for $20, but that is an unsubstantiated rumor. The three players: Petr Prucha, Henrik Lundqvist, and Fedor Tyutin. That's a suit-and-tie wearing healthy scratch, a badly modeled replica of the best goaltender in the metropolitan area, and a Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman. 

Christian Backman mini-bobble-head sold separately. 

Thirdly, I keep winning money betting on hockey online. Relax, I'm not immoral. I bet between $5-$10 per game. I mostly bet parlays for hockey, where you pick two events to occur on the same night and you odds go up atleast 50%. For instance, I bet the Bruins would beat Colorado yesterday and San Jose would beat Anaheim. Since both occurred, I won. Last week, I bet on the Rangers and Pittsburgh and won. Today, I bet on the Rangers over Chicago and Columbus over Dallas. Thanks to Rick Nash's overtime heroics, I am a (slightly) richer man today.

And finally, I really like that the Rangers are excited this year. Everyone wants to be here, to win, not just for the paycheck. Paul Mara took a discount. Aaron Voros and Markus Naslund both wanted to sign here. Scott Gomez plays hard every shift. Chris Drury was a Ranger fan growing up and is now the captain of the team. Zherdev feels good and is in a real market now. Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan love being Rangers. Prucha missed school the next day to watch the Rangers win the Cup in 1994. Lundqvist loves the city and the spotlight. And for all I will beat on Wade Redden this year, he chose to come here when other cities offered him the same (bloated) contract as Glen Sather did.

Wanting to win is the difference-maker in close games. A few years ago, the Rangers left so many points on the table that they should have had just because they had no will to succeed. 

Here's hoping this year is different.

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And one non-Ranger note.

I am on record as saying I don't like listening to Doc Emerick when he does games I am watching. His voice irritates me, he's pretentious, and a know-it-all.

However, I would rather listen to him read the phonebook than ever listen to Chico Resch do color commentary. Actually, calling it color commentary is an insult to color men like Joe Micheletti and John Davidson. Is yelling "Whoo!" after a Martin Brodeur save something that enhances the game for the fans at home?

I guess it doesn't matter if no one is watching the Devils, to be honest. (They once had 736 people tune in for a game against the Panthers.)