halfway to heaven

We did it! Thank the hockey Gods we played such a good sound game 7, but even so my heart was beating out of my chest last night. It felt terrific to finally be on the smiling side of the handshake line against the Caps, even as I felt for those sad white sweaters. I've always wondered if I had the resiliency as a fan to endure a deep run, and thankfully I'm about to find out. I have quite a bit of guilt that I wasn't a hockey fan in 1994. It was my first year in the city and to be honest team sports were the furthest thing from my mind at that time. I grew to love the Rangers in the early 2000s, not our finest years, but I still loved those Lindros years.

The Lundqvist years have been much kinder & given all of us a ton of great moments and a few happy handshake lines. My favorite is the 2008 quarterfinal line against the New Jersey Devils. We all remember Brodeur refusing to shake Avery's hand and #16's brilliantly candid interview after, a definite highlight. But I also remember the Devils pulling out game 3 of that series in OT at the MSG and it hurt like Hades. This upcoming series is gonna be brutal win or lose. It's my first conference finals & I definitely have the resolve to get through it. I hope and believe the Rangers do too, but every second is gonna sting, every goal against gonna be a kick in the gut. I just hope (really a lot) that we'll be on the right side of this line. 8 more wins to go, but let's get the next four a little quicker. Let's go Rangers!