It Would Only Happen to Me

This is one of those "it would only happen to Marna" 

stories as some say.

Let's see.......we'll start at the beginning:

My sister and her friends were planning a trip to New York City (NYC) several months back.  Lynette asked me to go.  I decided sure, I'd always wanted to visit NYC, mostly to see a Broadway play and New York Rangers hockey.

After a couple of weeks went by I thought there might be a possibility that the Stanley Cup playoff season would be going on while we in New York in May.  The New York Rangers (NYR) weren't having a great season so far.  On paper the team looked unstoppable.  But on the ice, well, they were.

So even though I figured the National Hockey League (NHL) season ending date and the playoff beginning date would hit the timing of our trip, I really didn't think the New York Rangers (NYR) would make the playoffs.  Three weeks before the playoffs began it became clear they would make it!!!  Now I just had to wait for the schedule to be released and keep my fingers crossed they would have a home game the week we were in NYC.

The week before we were to leave for our NYC visit the schedule was posted on the NHL website.  Only there was one problem: the NYR play Wednesday night BEFORE we arrive on Thursday and then again on Sunday night, THE night we are flying home.  Oh the agony!

I, Marna, was in the middle of my first real conumdrum.  What to do???  Fly out a night early?  Stay an extra night?  Lot's of people had different opinions on what I should do.  Some said go the day before.  Some said stay the extra night.  Others said, "Oh, go on and go early and stay late-see both.  When will you ever be able to go again?"  I thought about the options and looked into Sunday night's game-maybe I could go to the 8:00 pm game (our plane was leaving NYC at 8:00pm) and catch a later flight.  Problem?  There were no later flights.  Only next day flights.  So that fact X'd out the game.  For fun I looked at single seats available.  There were only ten or so left anyway.  Those would sell quick.

 

With dreams of seeing my beloved NYR play hockey at Madison Square Garden dashed I had great fun in the city with my sister and her friends.  We saw "Wicked" on Broadway.  I hated the "Wizard of Oz".  Mostly because of the flying monkeys.  I hate flying monkeys.  I said if there are flying monkeys in this play I'm outta there.  There were flying monkeys.  But "Wicked" turned out to be one of the best performances I've ever seen in my life.  Just to go see the show is reason enough for a trip to NYC.

One of the tour buses that were everywhere!

Now, back to hockey.  Adding insult to injury, everywhere I went I saw tour buses painted with huge New York Ranger playoff ads.  I watched some Playoff games in the room each night.  On Saturday during the NHL talk show the New York Rangers game the next day was brought up.  The Sunday (remember, our leave day) game.  But it was at 3:30!  Wait.  Whoa.  I could easily go to the 3:30 game and have plenty of time to get to the airport at 8:00 pm!!  (I had been wrong about the start time.)

Now to find a ticket.  I pulled out the good ole trusty laptop to watch the last two single seat tickets be sold right in front of me. Geez!  Oh well.  Laura, who was with our group, said "Let's ask downstairs."  The hotel and had helped us all week find great places to eat and visit.  Laura told the desk that I really, really wanted to go to the New York Rangers game tomorrow and was there a way to find a ticket.  Supposedly the hotels work together with customers for event tickets.  Several tickets in different areas of Madison Square Garden were found.  We talked about the pros and cons of where the location of each seat was.  The guy at the desk said, "Let me call one more person."  The guy he talked to had a ticket that was third row from the ice!  But the seat was really a front row due to the way the rows were lain out.  I said that is the one I want!!  Deal done.  I'm going to a New York Rangers playoff game.  Excitement and nerves began to set in.  The guy at the dest told me "That's a REALLY good seat."  Hearing that made me even more excited and proud.

The New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994 and I ordered the win package-video of series, hat, jersey, license plate....the whole nine yards.  Now.  What to wear?  My 1994 Mark Messier jersey is long gone.  I had my 1994 car license plate that I was going to take to NYC with me.   I didn't think I'd get to see the game so left it at home.  I was planning to write 1994 on the back and hold it up showing the license plate then flip to the year.  (Like anyone would see it in the sea of fans.)

Henrik Lundqvist, #30, New York Rangers goalie

So I had nothing to wear.  I passed a NHL store in NYC.  Ummm, they would have NY Rangers shirts and yes, I bought one.  A Henrik Lundqvist #30 jersey, the goalie, some say the best goalie in the whole of NHL.  I'm ready, I have a ticket and a jersey and a plan to get to the airport on time.  I arrive at Madison Square Garden about two hours early.  There are bands and tons of people.  Everyone was hyped up to watch NYR play the Washington Capitols.  I listened to the band and people watched for a little while but eventually went toward the entrance to wait the for the doors to open. 

I had no idea where to go or where my seat was.  There is a small escalator to one side that said Club and Suites.  Well, that can't be my entrance I said to myself.  I saw a man and women standing near by and showed them my ticket saying "I’m from Tennessee and I'm not sure where to go or which gate to enter."  The guy said "That's a really great seat."  He told me to take the escalator - in an hour.  That is when the Garden would open.  I stood there a while more thinking what the man said about the escalator couldn’t be correct because the sign said Clubs and Suites........

Eventually I walked up to the man taking tickets at the escalator.  I showed him my ticket and told him I was from Tennessee and had no idea where to go.  He looked at my ticket and said "That's a REALLY good seat."  Hmmmmm, I knew it was going to be a good seat because it's third row.  But the way people are saying "it's a really good seat" struck me as weird for some reason....

Verizon "red carpet". Verizon was taking free photos on the way in.

At the assigned time, one hour before the puck drops, I went up and showed my ticket to the guy at the escalator.  Then I went to the next person for security check and showed him my ticket.  He said with emphasis, "That's a really good seat."  Strange......everyone seemed to know the seat section.  Maybe they were just good seats anyone would love?  I didn't know, had no clue and didn't really care at that point.  I went up the escalator to a small lobby with large boardroom looking doors (which were shut).  Ummmmm......where do I go I thought?  There was NO way I was about to open one of those doors.  I turned around and walked right back to the three teenager welcomers standing at the top of the excalator.  They told me they had no idea how to get to any of the seats.  Great.  Even they didn't know.

 


I walked around the lobby for a little bit and then saw a very nice looking, evidently wealthy, older gentleman.  I walked up to him and showed him my ticket saying "I’m from Tennessee (why I kept repeating this I do not know) and I don't know where to go.  Could you help me?"  The gentleman looked at my ticket and said, "That is a really good seat.  Go down the stairs at the edge of the room.  Turn right and you'll be at an escalator that will take you up to the concourse for seating." I thanked the gentleman and walked away.  

When I was about 60 feet away he yelled out "That is a really good seat. That's where all the girlfriends and wives sit."  I turned back to look at him, threw up my hands, waved them and said "No, not me, no I'm not one of those. I'm from Tennessee.  I'm just here to see a dream come true."  Then I looked down at what I was wearing.  #30 Henrik Lundqvist jersey....oh.....no.......  My stomach churned just a little.

I went up the escalator and took my seat.  Wow.  It really was a good seat. No, take that back.  It was a GREAT seat!  I was super excited.  The teams came out for warm ups.  Not many people were in the stands during that time.  Most were outside with the bands and others just don't want to be at the game an hour early.

It was probably my nervous paranoia over being told what the section was for, but I felt some of the players were glancing my way.  No one was sitting around me........  Oh my, they were probably thinking "Who gave that ole lady a ticket."  (I am old enough to be their mother.)  But it was the other team’s end of the ice in front of me so I dismissed the thought.

Ryan Callahan, Captain, NYR
Dan Giardi, NYR

The game was getting close to start when a very pretty blond with very curly hair sat behind me.  She had a little boy of about 6 with a Rick Nash #61 jersey on.  I thought, "Oh great, this is probably a girlfriend and she is probably wondering who the heck I am and what am I doing with #30's jersey on.  Especially since he is married."  She was probably thinking this woman is stupid.  If she is #30 mistress she shouldn't have worn the jersey.   (Funny I am dreaming up some script going through her head.  She was probably doing the same about me.)

I was sooooo uncomfortable from that moment on about having a jersey on, period.  Everyone in Madison Square Garden had jerseys on.  Or some type of NYR shirt/outfit.  NONE in our section had a jersey on.  I'm not even sure they had NYR's colors on.  (From what I could tell.  I was too intimidated by what was going on to look back very far.  The furthest I did look was the little cute blond lady with the gorgeously curly hair.

Before the game began a man in a suit walked in front of me from the concrete path below.  He handed me a frozen practice puck and pointed at the little boy wearing the #61 Rick Nash jersey.   I turned around and gave the puck to him.  Thirty minutes or so later another man in a suit brought a string NYR backpack filled with Rangers stuff and a NYR hat for the little boy.  Hmmm....something special about that kid.

Two young girls came and sat my me when the game started who seem to be spoiled.  Before they came a lady had walked in front of me and asked "Are you alright? Do you need anything? Just let me know when and if you need something."  Wow, more uncomfortableness..... I sat up straight as a board wondering if she was talking to me.  I responded, “No.  No thank you. I’m fine.”  (My friend Patty said I should have asked her if she could get me another jersey.)  This section had waitresses.  I’m used to guys going up and down the stands selling cotton candy.

Dan Girardi, #5, New York Rangers

The two girls flagged the lady down and asked for beer.  She said she'd need to see their ID's.  The first girl, who looked right around 21, produced hers.  The lady asked for the second girl's ID.  (This girl didn't look a day over 16 or 17.)  The girl shouted loudly "My Daddy's got it".  She pointed back to her dad who must have been several rows up.  The girl got her beer, several of them.  It's not for me to say, perhaps she had an ID with her dad, or maybe Daddy covered for her and got her the beers.

About ten minutes into the game two boys about age 19 sat on the other side of me.  The last two seats on the row.  Foul mouthed boys.  By then my experience of my dream hockey game was becoming tarnished.  Tarnished by annoying girls, one of which took about twenty photos of herself within five minutes.  AND also by the foul mouthed boys.  AND sitting in the family and important people section with that stupid jersey where I obviously by this point didn't belong.

   

The game had started an hour late-at 4:30 so I knew I could not stay for the third period. (It was HARD to leave but just watching a little helped me reach a bucket list check-off.)  During the last ten minutes of the second period I turned and asked the curly headed woman if she would take a photo of me.  I told her I was from Tennessee and always wanted to see a New York Rangers game.  She said sure and took a photo.  Then she took another, for good measure.  She was really nice and wanted to make sure at least one of the photos turned out well.

Me in my #30 Henrik Lundqvist jersey - the photo the
nice lady took for me

The second period ended and I stood up, gathered my things and turned to the lady to once again thank her for taking the photo.  She exclaimed, “You’re not leaving already are you?” I told her yes, I was from Tennessee (again) and that I had to catch my plane home.  She asked what part of Tennessee I was from.  I said East Tennessee.  The lady told me she had a college friend from Chattanooga.  I asked her "So did you go to UTC?"  I could have hit myself on my forehead (and did later when I left) after her reply: "No,  I went to Columbia."  Columbia? Columbia?  Oh, yeah, of course Columbia and here I insulted you by automatically thinking you went to the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga....... Didn't I sound stupid....

I said, “thank you again” and started walking through the stands.  The lady with the beautiful hair said “Oh, by the way, who gave you the ticket?” She sure wasn’t going to let me out of there without finding that fact out.  Oh, no.  I was afraid this would happen.  What do I say?  I felt I obviously, maybe, wasn’t supposed to have this ticket?  I vaguely explained how and got out of the arena.

So there is the story of my dream come true, to see the New York Rangers play hockey at Madison Square Garden.  And what a dream come true it was.  Many have told me when I tell them the story, "That's something that would only happen to you Marna". 

Brian Boyle, #22, NYR