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Evan Roberts Is Awesome


Daniel

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Last year evened things up for me. We took out the team of destiny (streamers and all), and did so by winning 2 of 3 games in the giant bed pan that is MSG. Plus, Henrique's OT goal was one of the most exhilirating sports moments I've every witnessed in my life (right up there with winning all 3 cups). If I could go back and re-live 1 sporting experience again, it probably would be that game.

The Rags had the Queen in 2006 (it was his rookie year). They blame migrain headaches for his absolutely aweful performance in Game 1, which led to Weekes playing in game 2. The Queen was in net for games 3 and 4, and got absolutely owned by the Devils through most of that series. Jagr was missing because he seperated his own shoulder trying to elbow Gomez in the head towards the end of Game 1. Pathetic.

There were a lot of great moments in that series. Elias had a beautiful goal at the Garden, the 5-on-3 kill capped with Madden (coughOzolinshcough) scoring fresh from the box, King Nothing getting the hook ... but Jagr's attempted beheading of Gomez that resulted in that injury was just such an epic fail on so many comedic levels. That might be my favorite one.

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Last year evened things up for me. We took out the team of destiny (streamers and all), and did so by winning 2 of 3 games in the giant bed pan that is MSG. Plus, Henrique's OT goal was one of the most exhilirating sports moments I've every witnessed in my life (right up there with winning all 3 cups). If I could go back and re-live 1 sporting experience again, it probably would be that game.

The Rags had the Queen in 2006 (it was his rookie year). They blame migrain headaches for his absolutely aweful performance in Game 1, which led to Weekes playing in game 2. The Queen was in net for games 3 and 4, and got absolutely owned by the Devils through most of that series. Jagr was missing because he seperated his own shoulder trying to elbow Gomez in the head towards the end of Game 1. Pathetic.

I have to admit, I am a little surprised that '94 lingered in some Devils fans' minds, and that it took 2012 to vanquish it. It's not just that the Devils won for so long after '94...it was the Rangers long run of high-priced futility...7 years of not making the playoffs, the Devils long unbeaten streak against them...the scale was tipped pretty heavily in our favor from '95 on, even with some of the tough playoff series losses.

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I'm always amused by Rangers fans. My brother and his friends constantly tell me how "Devils fans are jealous of the Rangers success and history." :)

Your brother buys into everything that MSG and their specials spew about the Rags and the "Blueshirt Faithful." His facebook feed is a laundry list of every dim-witted cliche sayings the Rags have come up with to justify their mere relevance over the past 20 years.

The fact that his team and the "World's Greatest Arena" priced him out this season makes it even funnier.

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Also, yesterday I was sitting in front of a bunch of Flyers fans at the game. They didn't bother me for most of the game as they were just whining and gently weeping at the ineptitude of their team the most game.

However, halfway through the third period they decided to make comments about how there were a lot of empty seats in the arena. What he meant was a lot of the club seats were empty and I was about to make a comment that they were all busy watching TV in the lounges because the game is over anyways, but I bit my tongue on that. Then, amazingly, they started commenting about how the arena has so much people because most Devils fans are bandwagoners after last year's run. So which one is it!!?

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I'm always amused by Rangers fans. My brother and his friends constantly tell me how "Devils fans are jealous of the Rangers success and history." :)

That's the one that always cracks me up. The typical Rangers fan thinks, because his team plays in New York, and has been around forever, somehow that makes the Rangers the New York Yankees of the NHL by default. Success? History? They've been inept far more often than they've been successful. All they have is longevity. Two Cups in 73 years is success?! I'm a Mets fan, and far as history and success goes, the Rangers are a hell of a lot closer to being the Mets than they are the Yankees. The big moments for both franchises have been few and far between.

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That's the one that always cracks me up. The typical Rangers fan thinks, because his team plays in New York, and has been around forever, somehow that makes the Rangers the New York Yankees of the NHL by default. Success? History? They've been inept far more often than they've been successful. All they have is longevity. Two Cups in 73 years is success?! I'm a Mets fan, and far as history and success goes, the Rangers are a hell of a lot closer to being the Mets than they are the Yankees. The big moments for both franchises have been few and far between.

When you are an original six team with the least amount of Cup titles between the six and have as much or less Cups than some expansion teams who have been around for less than half the time you have, then you lay zero claim to any sort of "history of success"

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re: Amonte. The Rags were very confused with the huge step back he took in 1993-1994. Probably was having issues with Keenan...that trade had Keenans fingerprints all over it.

1991-1994 was the window to win it all for the Rags. They completely blew it the past 2 seasons. 1994 was the absolute drop dead date to win a cup

Even Gartner for Anderson was a bad one.

By the late 90's the Rags D consisted of Peter Popovic, Rumun Ndur, Chris Tamer and other random garbage. No wonder they turned the lights down at the Garden

They also traded Todd Marchant for Craig MacTavish. Marchant wasn't UFA until summer 2004, meanwhile MacTavish wasn't a Ranger in 1995.

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When you are an original six team with the least amount of Cup titles between the six and have as much or less Cups than some expansion teams who have been around for less than half the time you have, then you lay zero claim to any sort of "history of success"

And of course, if you actually try to debate a Ranger fan intelligently on such a point, you get something along the lines of "Duuuuuuuuuhhhh, well you can't sell out your own building widout us dare! Duuuuuuuuhhhhh, go have a pawking lawt parade, duuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh!" Then they walk away, "Duuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh, well I showed dat guy, duuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh"

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The Devils fan base is just about to blow the Rangers' out of the water, if you ask me.

The Devils young fanbase (those attracted by the 1995 championship, myself included in this) are justttt about to come of professional age and have expendable income to spend on tickets. I think we'll see a nice growth in attendance over the next few years

The Devils fan base is just about to blow the Rangers' out of the water, if you ask me.

The Devils young fanbase (those attracted by the 1995 championship, myself included in this) are justttt about to come of professional age and have expendable income to spend on tickets. I think we'll see a nice growth in attendance over the next few years

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The Devils fan base is just about to blow the Rangers' out of the water, if you ask me.

The Devils young fanbase (those attracted by the 1995 championship, myself included in this) are justttt about to come of professional age and have expendable income to spend on tickets. I think we'll see a nice growth in attendance over the next few years

It will be Ranger country for a while...New York has a sex appeal Newark never will, and they had a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge headstart on the Devils. If the Devils had been a SC contender from the start, like the Nordiques were when they became the Avalanche, that could've helped the Devils' cause early in making inroads, but as we all know, they were god-awful and took several years to become a bona-fide contender. They came to a hockey-saturated area that already had fans who were spoken for, as far as who their team was (Rangers, Islanders, Flyers). The deck has always been stacked against the Devils since they came here in that regard.

I'm not worried about blowing away the Ranger fanbase...as long as the Devils are drawing fans to the Rock in good numbers, that's good enough for me.

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It will be Ranger country for a while...New York has a sex appeal Newark never will, and they had a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge headstart on the Devils. If the Devils had been a SC contender from the start, like the Nordiques were when they became the Avalanche, that could've helped the Devils' cause early in making inroads, but as we all know, they were god-awful and took several years to become a bona-fide contender. They came to a hockey-saturated area that already had fans who were spoken for, as far as who their team was (Rangers, Islanders, Flyers). The deck has always been stacked against the Devils since they came here in that regard.

Not to mention the media bias toward the rags and against us

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The Devils fan base is just about to blow the Rangers' out of the water, if you ask me.

The Devils young fanbase (those attracted by the 1995 championship, myself included in this) are justttt about to come of professional age and have expendable income to spend on tickets. I think we'll see a nice growth in attendance over the next few years

The Devils fan base is just about to blow the Rangers' out of the water, if you ask me.

The Devils young fanbase (those attracted by the 1995 championship, myself included in this) are justttt about to come of professional age and have expendable income to spend on tickets. I think we'll see a nice growth in attendance over the next few years

What hurts us is that NJ is an expensive state to live in. So there has been some flight from the state...but you see many more hands in the stands go up to cheer when the Devils play someplace like Florida or (back in the day) Atlanta, Carolina, Boston. Devils fans are beginning to spread out.

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It's really "no one country". The Ranger fanbase is ridiculously overstated. There's more, but being the sixth most popular team in the market (and where the Nets go in the future, now that New York has "adopted" them could effect that)... it's kinda what it is. Obviously since it's the New York market they can call up the frontrunner reserves, but day in and day out? Not really. They're a big business, but it's the corporate connections that do that, not Joe Nobody off the street.

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I have to admit, I am a little surprised that '94 lingered in some Devils fans' minds, and that it took 2012 to vanquish it. It's not just that the Devils won for so long after '94...it was the Rangers long run of high-priced futility...7 years of not making the playoffs, the Devils long unbeaten streak against them...the scale was tipped pretty heavily in our favor from '95 on, even with some of the tough playoff series losses.

I don't really know how to describe it. While the Devils clearly had all the success and has largely dominated this area's hockey market (with the on-ice product) since 1994, I always felt there was unfinished business there. Its not like I harped on it and it bothered me too much, but it was always there lingering in the back of my mind. The pit in my stomach after walking out of the CAA after we lost Game 6 in 1994 never completely went away (figuratively in a hockey sense of course). The Rags ineptitude in the late 90's early-mid 2000's was highly entertaining. And sweeping them in 2006 was great, but beating them in a series with much more meaning had to be done to clear the decks in my eyes.

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I don't really know how to describe it. While the Devils clearly had all the success and has largely dominated this area's hockey market (with the on-ice product) since 1994, I always felt there was unfinished business there. Its not like I harped on it and it bothered me too much, but it was always there lingering in the back of my mind. The pit in my stomach after walking out of the CAA after we lost Game 6 in 1994 never completely went away (figuratively in a hockey sense of course). The Rags ineptitude in the late 90's early-mid 2000's was highly entertaining. And sweeping them in 2006 was great, but beating them in a series with much more meaning had to be done to clear the decks in my eyes.

You pretty much nailed it Chuck- I felt the exact same way. I was 15 years old when Matteau scored that goal. All my friends at school were Ranger fans. I never heard the end of it that year. That series scarred me for a long time- I had even put it above losing in 2001 to Colorado as the most painful loss I had as a fan. But last year, Adam Henrique ended all that when he tapped that puck in in overtime. I can't even begin to say what it meant to me as a Devils fan to win that series. It finally felt liked "finished business" with those a$$holes, regardless of the Finals outcome. It was a very special series win- as good as it gets without actually winning the Cup. I hope we play Henrique's goal on loop during play stoppages every time we play those fvckers from now until the end of time.
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You pretty much nailed it Chuck- I felt the exact same way. I was 15 years old when Matteau scored that goal. All my friends at school were Ranger fans. I never heard the end of it that year. That series scarred me for a long time- I had even put it above losing in 2001 to Colorado as the most painful loss I had as a fan. But last year, Adam Henrique ended all that when he tapped that puck in in overtime. I can't even begin to say what it meant to me as a Devils fan to win that series. It finally felt liked "finished business" with those a$$holes, regardless of the Finals outcome. It was a very special series win- as good as it gets without actually winning the Cup. I hope we play Henrique's goal on loop during play stoppages every time we play those fvckers from now until the end of time.

This exactly. I was 13. I live in Orange County NY, which was all Ranger country (less so now, I might add). The day after that game was brutal. I didn't hear the end of it at school. And the next year when the Devils won, all of a sudden, no one up there cared about hockey. Henrique's goal helped erase a lot of that for a lot of old time fans.

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Legitimate question: how do callers call into these shows? Is there some sort of checks and balances system in place or do callers just get in by chance and timing?

I've called a show before. It's luck and timing that you don't get a busy signal (commonly too big of an obstacle for all but the most determined). Then you talk to a screener who finds out what the bones of what you want to say are (he'll turn you away if you're off topic or sound incoherent). If you pass, then you're put in a queue on the host's screen, and then it's merit/luck/timing as to whether the host chooses to put you on the air before the show or relevant segment ends.

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To put it simply...

The Rangers are the Dallas Cowboys of hockey. Every year they are going to the big game, blah blah blah. Every year they disappoint and are forced to relive the 90's.

Scoops

The big difference is the complete arrogance of Ranger fans relative to their success. For a fan base that thinks their team is at the center of the universe, you'd think they'd do better than one cup in 73 years. Cowboys fans are generally honest about where their team stands at any given time.

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Regarding the bagel shop incident, I'd never go into that store again. I went to pizza 46 last year, saw ranger & islander wooden framed mirrors & nothing Devils. When I paid for my pizza, I told the young kid, hey tell the owner this is New Jersey, need some Devils stuff up there. He smiled & said yea, I'll never go back to that place. F'em.

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Regarding the bagel shop incident, I'd never go into that store again. I went to pizza 46 last year, saw ranger & islander wooden framed mirrors & nothing Devils. When I paid for my pizza, I told the young kid, hey tell the owner this is New Jersey, need some Devils stuff up there. He smiled & said yea, I'll never go back to that place. F'em.

I don't live anywhere near that area anymore...I don't even know if that place is still in business. It's been almost 18 years since I was there, scary as that is. Not like it's too hard to find other bagel shops to go to anyway, lol.

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