Go Rangers! Wha! Who whooped them? LOL
The last hockey game I saw in person was one of our home town games, forget what the name of the team was, but they, the Winston Salem team, was playing my old minor league team, the Quad City Mallards, here in WS. I even forget who won that game, but it just wasn't all that good. Since that time, Winston Salem has had three or maybe four different teams and just lost the last one. And my beloved QC Mallards are also gone, but they had a great run from what I've heard. As for the top teams, my first venture into professional hockey came in the early 80's when I was on strike with the UAW and working with my father in OKC. Went to a couple of the minor league team there who was affiliated with the Minnesota North Stars and was hooked. When I got back to the QC, I started watching hockey, mostly on the USA network, but also on ESPN and rooted for the North Stars. That year they went to the Stanley Cup finals against the Islanders. After that year, I became an Islander fan, but before you say, oh he was just a band wagon jumper, know that most of the games that I saw on TV at that time involved the Islanders. After a few years, and lots of memories of Billy Smith, I became a Ranger fan, again because the majority of the games I saw featured them. Hard to believe that I was never a Black Hawk fan and rarely saw them play. I have been a fan of Chicago teams for years, but this one was never one of my favs.
In my opinion, hockey is about like boxing in it's heyday, some thirty years ago. Both of them are very exciting, but without the marketing, they both languish at the bottom of the popularity without good reason.
Billy Smith... "Stay out of my crease!" I love it!