Honoring Graves…and 94..again!!

Ok, so yes, tonight is Adam Graves night. Yippee!!

Ok, yes that is sarcasm people, sorry.

I have made my feelings well known to anyone who will listen, how I feel about Adam Graves # being retired. I feel he does not deserve it, and I haven't changed my stance on that whatsoever. I feel that the Rangers organization has basically made a mockery of 1994, and I'm tired of it. Every single time I turn on MSG, you can’t go more then 5 minutes without seeing something about it. The Garden’s 50 Greatest Moments, the Spring of ’94, Hockey’s Greatest Moments, Richter, Messier, Graves and Leetch profiles. All of them. Continuously rotating on the network’s schedule, day in, day out. They need new programming. And they need lives. Seriously!

And with the raising of Graves #, it only underscores even more what I’m saying. Do I believe that Messier, Richter and Leetch all deserve to be up in the Garden rafters? Yes, I do. Do I believe that 8 of the 9 #’s that will be up there after this season are worthy? Absolutely. And I have defended and defended and re-defended it every time someone says, “Oh they retire everyone’s jersey.” No, they don’t. It just seems that way, cause they’ve done it so much the last few years. They probably should’ve made double ceremonies out of Richter and Graves, to be honest. And Messier’s ceremony, while incredible, was ridiculously long. He thanked the fricken janitors for crying out loud! And he cried…and cried…and cried…and cried some more! Remeber last year at Leetch night? When a fan made the whole crowd and everyone on the ice laugh hysterically by screaming, “Here we go!” when Mess had to compose himself before he spoke? Geez, even Richter joked by famously saying “Welcome to Brian Leetch Night brought to you by Kleenex!” Or was that Messier night? I lost track. Look, Mess is my favorite all time Ranger, but what’s the over/under on how long before his eyes get red tonight people, huh? I’m gonna go with when he’s introduced!

Listen, I love the '94 team. I am thankful and eternally grateful for everything they accomplished. Hey, I still can't help but get chills when I see certain moments from that year sometimes. It was an amazing year. It was our year, and for Ranger fans (young and old), we know all too well, that there haven't been too many times where we can say that.

But I, for one, am looking more forward to Andy Bathgate & Harry Howell night, which I am going to. I’m pumped for it. I am very much into the Rangers history, read up on it as much as I can, and consider myself to be very knowledgeable on the subject. So it'll be fun to see the old, grainy footage of the 50's & 60's, see pictures of the old Garden and to see 2 true Ranger legends being honored the way they should have been, a long, long time ago.

But with all that being said, I love Adam Graves. He was a great player for us. And he is an even greater human being. And he really does exemplify what it means to be a Ranger, both on and off the ice. And I was never more proud to be a Ranger fan, then when he wore our sweater. So, while I do not support this jersey raising, I will watch the ceremonies tonight. And I will get nostalgic, and I will even enjoy them. The Garden always does a great job with these things and why shouldn't they? It’s not like they haven't had tons of practice!

But after tonight, I am done with 94, and I mean it. I want the book closed on that wonderful season, and I want to move on. We need to. Cause at this point, it is just overkill. And it needs to stop. The Garden needs to stop showing all the footage of 94 on TV. And they need to STOP honoring this team. Seriously, enough. You’ve honored the core of the team. We all knew eventually you would, and this was probably the way it needed to be, but stop, PLEASE! I am tired of hearing Devil fans bust my chops all the time! STOP!!!! This is long and rambling, isn’t it? Feels like it’s never gonna end, right? WELL NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL!!!

Winning a championship once in a blue moon, really does suck. Yeah, it’s worth it in a lot of ways, cause there’s all that build up and all that suffering. What was that banner in the Garden on that great night about 2 years ago? “Now I Can Die In Peace”? Oh wait, it was 15 years ago? Sorry, the way it is played on MSG over and over again, you would think it was just recently!

The only other good thing about not winning it all very often, besides it being worth the suffering, is that it’s rare. It’s precious. And what you do with something so precious and so rare is you cherish it. And you do that by taking it and locking it away. You protect its legacy, you let it stay rare. And then every once in a while, when you haven’t seen it in ages, you take it out again, and you say, “Wow, I haven’t seen this in such a long time...isn’t this great?”. And you enjoy it.

That feeling for me with 1994, ended about 2 years ago. The rareness is gone and I want it back. Give it back to us Garden management, we deserve it.

Lock it away, close the book and let us all move on, please.