Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
MSG a palace to Kings
Famed arena appeals even to visiting teams
Finally, the Rangers have come out on top in the Stanley Cup Final.
Heading into Game 3, the Kings led the series 2-0 after back-to-back overtime victories in Los Angeles. But even they carried giddiness east with the thought of playing inMadison Square Garden on Monday night.
Kings coach Darryl Sutter, a man whose vocabulary rarely extends beyond, “yup” and “nope,” said, “The best part of playing the Rangers, you get to play in Madison Square Garden.”
The Kings’ arena, that blimp hangar known as the Staples Center, carries the self-assigned billing “the sports and entertainment center of the world.” Now the Kingswalk into what is widely called “the World’s Most Famous Arena.”
Finally, a victory for the Rangers.
Now if they can only get one on the ice. Playing at home, they hoped, would help with that.
Coming back to the Garden, “is going to be huge,” Rangers defenseman John Moore said.
Coach Alain Vigneault framed it as “the biggest game New York has had here in 20 years.”
Actually, 19 years, 356 days. The Rangers beat the Canucks in Game 7 in Madison Square Garden to win their last Cup on June 14, 1994.
This is the fourth version of the arena. It opened in 1968 and has seen Bruce Springsteen concerts and NBA titles, and one NHL championship. Staples Center, which opened in 1999, has had Springsteen concerts and NBA titles, and one NHL championship.
But the Garden can claim to be the standard for arenas. Staples Center can claim it’s better than the Fabulous Forum.
Even the Kings’ Marian Gaborik, who has called both New York and Los Angeles home, said playing in the Garden “gives you extra jump.”
Gaborik played for the Rangers from 2009 until being traded during the 2012-13 season, when he was run out of town for failing to deliver a Stanley Cup. This is his first visit to the arena since the latest renovation. He knows one thing that will be the same.
“You know they have great fans,” Gaborik said. “They are going to be supporting them.”
TheRangers are banking on that.