View from enemy territory

By Michael Rushton

Okay, so I'm back from my trip to New York that consisted of Madison Square Garden, twenty-five cent arcade games and three separate meals of just pizza.

This time around there were no Club Box seats, just level 400 tickets, a long subway ride and a stomach virus. This time you can feel sorry for me.

- Guess I have no choice but to start with the Mike Knuble-Brendan Shanahan collision. I only saw it out of the corner of my eye and the Rangers tastefully elected not to show a replay of it so I didn't see the actual hit until later that night. Obviously, it's never fun to see anything like this, especially when you spend about 10 minutes trying to see if Shanahan was able to move at all. Thankfully, it appears both players are okay in the long run.

- An awkward moment occurred while Shanahan was being attended to. Knuble eventually got up and was helped off the ice, leading to some applause by the Flyers fans in attendance. A couple of Rangers fans, for some reason, took this as we were cheering the Shanahan injury. We quickly corrected him and nothing else happened, other than the Michael Irvin incident being thrown in our faces for the rest of the game.

- The first 20 minutes of the game showed why the Flyers need to stop dressing Todd Fedoruk and Ben Eager at the same time. The two combined for 10 penalty minutes in the opening frame, not including Eager's 10-minute misconduct call, yet, when the gloves finally came off, it was Mike Richards and Alexandre Picard who went to the box for fighting in the end. Philadelphia doesn't need to dress two players with the same useless role.

- That being said, the play of Fedoruk and Eager may have been premeditated because the Flyers scored shorthanded, again. Even though they didn't factor into the goal, Richards and Sami Kapanen are one of the best penalty-killing duos out there.

- On the other end of things, the Rangers' power play looked horrible. How a guy like Jaromir Jagr can just hold the puck and look to pass with all that room baffles me. Oh wait, didn't we used to have Peter Forsberg...

-Speaking of Jagr, it didn't take long for the boos to rain down on the Czech as things went sour. Guess they are turning on him in the Big Apple. Sean Avery and Shanahan are crowd favorites though. Marek Malik also appears to be a crowd whipping boy.

- You know those fans who think there is a penalty on every play when their team doesn't score? Every time a Ranger falls, is hit, or skates into the Flyers' zone untouched, they think there should have been a call. Those fans are annoying when they root for your team, let alone when they are pulling for the other team.

- So you guessed it, I sat right next to one of these guys. Highlight was when Moron #2's lady friend told him to shut up midway through the second.

- Simon Gagne is going to be okay without Forsberg.

- To this day, I am still unimpressed with the Garden. It's no big deal to me, other than the fact it is in New York.

- I expected better out of Ranger fans as far as the taunting. Moron #3 sat back and to the right of me and he was weak, other than his awesome Brooklyn accent. The following are his highlights.

- Moron #3 immediately asked us if we had the worst record in the league. Then he reminded us we have just five wins at home. Our reply, "we're not at home."

-Moron #3 asked us if we missed Eric Lindros. "At least we got something for him" and "We miss him as much as you do" were are responses.

- Moron #3 asked us the last time we won a Stanley Cup. To be honest with you, if your championship was more than 10 years ago, you may want to go another route with your insults.

- Moron #3 asked me why I picked an Anson Carter jersey to wear. I was actually rocking my Jeff Carter jersey at the time and quickly pointed out to him that Anson never played for the Flyers but he did have an unsuccessful run in New York. However, Moron #3 refused to acknowledge his mistake and continued to grill me on Anson Carter. I almost bit the bullet and bought him a media guide. Definitely the most confusing moment of my life.

-By the way, the Flyers won and Scottie Upshall scored. Go Black and Orange!

Michael Rushton is done traveling for the year, but can be reached at mrushton@phanaticmag.com.