That's me in the home white jersey with my brothers......The Hansons!
When you get to the top of your craft, playing MSG is the icing on the cake. Ask any musician or athlete. So when I was asked to do a live audition for the public address announcer at the world's most famous arena I was tickled. Yes, I had seen some great shows there and attended some NHL milestone games but to get on that mic and hear my own voice on that sound system.....well it was awesome. No, I didn't get the gig. The guy who beat me out was fired after one night and Joe Tollison of WFAN took over and remains the PA guy to this day. Just imagine if they hired me. That would have changed everything and I bet I'd still be in NY.
I attended Mark Messier's last NHL game. I was in a luxury box to witness Wayne Gretzky score his final NHL goal. I was even lucky enough to see several playoff games at MSG. While it's true I've seen more games in Nassau than MSG (and hosted more concerts) there's no doubt that the place is a kind of holy spot. With that in mind, the Panthers ended their four game road trip at the World's Most Famous Arena with a shoot out win over the first place New York Rangers.
The Cats came out a bit shaky and I kidded a buddy explaining that the Panthers weren't used to playing in front of that many people. That's a silly comment in that they had just played Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, three hockey meccas in their own right. It wasn't long before the Panthers settled down and played one hell of a road game.
Here's the photo gallery.
The Hockey Rodent asked why Reimer looked shaky......not sure what he meant as the keeper was a main reason the Cats hung around long enough to salvage the win. The game just as easily could have been a blow out in favor of the home team.
I had been complaining about the play of Keith Yandle and his poor play and of course, he opened the scoring for the Cats on the PP. See it for yourself.
On a sad note, in overtime which was very exciting, Rangers center Mika Zibanejad hit the boards awkwardly and it resulted in a broken leg. The kid is quite the story as he had been playing great and may be the only kid of Persian descent to play in the NHL. Let's hope he gets back to his form quickly.
I've noticed that the visitors to this site are not mostly Panther fans. Many seem to be the old Hockeybird readers who follow the Rangers. That's fine. If you remember, we had an Islander fan (Melvin) who did the news and had fans of most of the other NHL teams as regulars on our message boards. We are and have always been inclusive. That means if you love hockey you are welcome here no matter what team you root for. That brings me to another point. The old site had it's own server and message board. I am currently working on a project that may allow us to do that again. I'll keep you posted.
I could really use some help.....so if you want in, send me a note at Bird at hockeybird.com.
----}- Bird
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