No. 2 and No. 9
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- January
- 24
Wow! What a night at Madison Square Garden. The place sure hasn’t had enough nights like this lately.
Not only did they honor the great Brian Leetch, but to then allow Leetch to announce that they would retire Adam Graves’ number was just icing on the cake. I know there’s some debate about whether Graves was the caliber of player who should have his number retired. He’s not a Hall of Famer. But Graves, for many reasons, is the most beloved Ranger ever, a man of the fans, who was as responsible for that Cup as anybody else—remember he scored an eye-popping then-team record 52 goals that season.
“I’m the one guy (among the four, with Leetch, Mark Messier and Mike Richter) who probably depended more on those three guys than any of them depended on the other three guys,” Graves said. “Therefore I just feel really, really humbled right now.
“It really hasn’t sunk in. I had no idea. I don’t know if it looked that way. I know
I walk around in a fog on a regular basis, but I certainly was not expecting this. I had no idea. … quite honestly I was foggy. Brian came over and said ‘congratulations’ and the only thing I could think about was, ‘Go back. This is about you.’ It kind of really caught me off guard, and I was really humbled.”
Leetch’s ceremony was spectacular. He did a great job, better than I thought he might do, with his speech. I knew he was intelligent and articulate, but that can’t be an easy thing to do. Leetch handled it the way he handled his game.
Messier introduced him by asking the crowd to welcome “the greatest Ranger ever.
“Brian is forever going to be the benchmark of what it looks like to be a Ranger, for what it’s supposed to be like to be a Ranger. … for the next 100 years or more … they’re going to point to Brian Leetch and say, ‘That’s what we want as a New York Ranger.’â€?
This night meant a lot to Leetch.
“It’s kind of similar to the parade in ‘94, and that’s always kind of been my No. 1 moment from all my years of playing hockey and it had nothing to do with on-ice, goals or assists,� Leetch said. “It’s just the extra bonus or reward of winning a championship in New York City. This will be another one of those type of moments that is separate from a big victory or sharing things with your team, as you’re able to share this with such a large number of people.�
I wrote about some of my favorite Leetch memories for The Journal News and LoHud.com tomorrow. As always, especially when I write about hockey, I’d love to hear what the Garden faithful think.
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on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 11:24 pm by Carp.
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As a person Adam Graves is one of the best mankind has to offer. For what he has done to help others is truly legendary.
As a player, his 52 goals and helping the Rangers win the 94 cup that too was wonderful.
However the number 9 in Ranger history does not belong to Graves alone and to see that number retired for just Graves is wrong.
Andy Bathgate wore that number from 1952 until 1964. He was elected the Hockey Hall of Fame AS a Ranger something Graves for all his good is not going to earn.
As a Ranger Bathgate was a Top 10 scorer in the NHL for 9 straight seasons. He holds the Rangers record for most consecutive games with a goal (8)
Bathgate was voted as one of the 100 greatest hockey players (58) again something that Graves is not going to be considered.
What this truly is about is marketing and selling merchandise. It was not “Brian Leetch Night”, it was “Brian Leetch Night presented by American Express”
People will gobble up Adam Graves merchandise just like so many will want to purchase Brian Leetch merchandise as they did Mikey and Mess merchandise.
I do not wish people to think that this is anything against Adam Graves but what it is about is asking Ranger fans to realize that there is a Ranger history before 1994, that part of the charm in being a Ranger fan in the 1950’s, 60s and even 70’s was the annual heartbreak this team put us though.
they should retire the # for both guys!!!
Nice comments Jess. Great ceremony tonight, Leetch till has some bitterness over the trade.. He can’t hide it…
That’s part of the spoils of a championship season. Look at all the Knicks who are in the rafters from those two title years. Look at Monument Park in Yankee Stadium. Guys like Guidry and Billy Martin weren’t Hall of Famers, but they won titles and were great Yankees. Don Mattingly is the only non-champion out there. I compare him to Rod Gilbert—although Gilbert was a Hall of Famer who never won.
I’d like to see Andy Bathgate and Brad Park and Harry Howell (maybe even Jean Ratelle) have their numbers retired, too.
If ever there was a guy who would share the spotlight, it would be Adam Graves. I must be getting soft in as my years click by, but as I stood in the Garden during the ceremony I had tears streaming down my face when Leetch announced that they would be retiring Graves’ number next, but when I saw Harry Howell (and to some degree Park) standing beside him, I could not help but feel bad for him. I’ll bet that Adam would gladly share the spotlight to allow Andy Bathgate to share in the retiring of #9 for both of them – and then hopefully somehow find a way to honor Howell too – hey, for that matter, my other all-time favorite Ranger – Ron Greschner! Do the right thing and get them done before its too late!