| 26 April 2009
In case you didn't hear on the NBC broadcast, the New York Rangers have sent a letter to the NHL requesting that Verizon Center be fined for not taking proper precautions to ensure fans can't do what fans do best, heckle.
Here's the whole letter, but this is the part you'll want to read.
"Neither the NHL nor either team has had the opportunity to conduct a full investigation or to interview all witnesses but the television coverage and the statements made by Rangers bench personnel make clear that Washington utterly failed in its security obligations to the Rangers, not to mention its own fans. The tension was evident from before the opening face-off. Throughout the game, several people seated immediately behind the visitors' bench took advantage of the looseness of the glass panels and the unusually wide gaps between the panels to assault the Rangers with some of the most obscene language imaginable. Because of the way the glass is installed, the patron sitting behind Coach Tortorella (the gray-haired, bearded man in the white T-Shirt) could literally scream into the coach's ear. According to Rangers trainer Jim Ramsay, one patron was screaming at the team, in graphic language, about whether Dan Girardi and Marc Staal have a sexual relationship. This was within earshot of several children seated nearby. Several other fans also made repeated homophobic remarks. Moreover, Mr. Ramsay reported that he and other bench personnel were spit on by one or more "fans" as they yelled through the gaps in the glass."
So I guess this means we won't be seeing Marc Staal and Dan Girardi on the Kiss Cam...
You're telling me that professional hockey players who play in New York City, a place where profanity is part of everyday New Yorker vernacular, were thrown off their game by some wahoos dropping the f-bomb at them?
You're asking me to believe that fans in New York City are being polite gentlemen behind our bench as we speak? The spitting sure, that's stupid, I'll agree with them there, but for the most part the Rangers are whining because they got heckled.
Wah-wah-wah.
Perhaps the D.C. United can lend you their special "heckle-proof benches" for the game. Do you want soundproof earphones to wear, too?
Congratulations, Rangers You are now the grass fairies of the NHL. Don't forget to fall and grab your knee when someone touches you.
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