So about 20 min later I leave and as I am walking out I see him standing them. I say hi again and ask if everything is ok he says he hsa been waiting for a cab to bring him back to the hotel but there were none. So I offered to drive him and he accepted.

It was quite amusing to see him try to fit into my car but he was a spot about it. He was extremely cool, saying how he hates playing for Washington, that the fans suck. Talked about his Harley, tatoos, etc…

So get him to the hotel and he tells me come by the Collosium and pick up tickets he will leave form me for their game with the Islanders. Wasnt really excited about going to the Islanders game but figured when an all-star gives you tickets, you should go.

So go to the game, good seat. Im standing by the glass during warm-up, Al skates by, sees me. Stops and starts talking to me, how are the seats, I ask him to lay out Turgeon, he says he will try but that he never goes nears the boards…lol. all in all pretty cool.

Best story about the Rangers would be either sitting with Jeff Beukeboom in the Green room (he had hurt his leg), watching the game on TV with him and him telling me about all the people he didn’t like…or the time I was in the green room after a game, on line to get a drink and look behind me to see Gretzky behind me. I could not believe I was in linein front of the Great one so i offered him my spot and he laughs and says it was ok.

A bit silly those stories but memories I will never forget.

Tony – great story class act by you as a father

LI Joe

I then saw Brian Leetch and asked if I could have him sign my card. He was with security or someone, a man in his 40’s pushed ahead of me and put out a sheet of 6 cards for Leetch to sign. He signed all of them and I was next when Leetch said sorry that’s it, I’m done and walked away. That always pissed me off.

Anyway I got to meet Richter in Lake Placid while he was on IR with the concussion. Nicest guy ever, I delivered firewood to his cabin, he was staying at a hotel I worked at and had requested a delivery. Gave me a $10 bill and talked to me for about 15 minutes on the state of the Rangers at the time. We talked about a lot of different topics and it was an experience I will always remember.

There was usually one time a year when we’d have a game immediately preceding a Rangers open practice so for our 3rd period there would be a 10,000% increase in attendance to our bantam game.

One of the coolest days of my life: It was the last day of the regular season in 2000. My Aunt and future Uncle (both huge Rangers fans and season ticket holders) got tickets to the hottest play in town, Copenhagen. They asked me if I wanted to go see the play with them. Normally, I would want to go to the Rangers game, but honestly, I couldn’t watch my favorite team, with no chance of making the playoffs play their final game at the Garden.

So we went to Copenhagen. WOW what a bore! It was two people standing on a stage with only a chair and talking about nuclear weapons. Everyone was sleeping, including my Uncle! At the end of the first act, he said, let’s go get dinner at ESPN Zone and play a few games.

While I was playing air hockey with my uncle, I look over and Eric Lacroix is next to me playing against his girlfriend. I frantically whisper to my uncle who it was. I didn’t bother him for his autograph but I said “Hi Eric” and was very pleased. As I’m calling my mom from my uncle’s phone to tell her about it, I see Mike York playing arcade basketball. Now I knew it had to be more than a coincidence that two Rangers are in ESPN Zone at once. As I go over to tell my Aunt, she frantically waves at me to come over. We look down into the glass room below the arcade floor and the ENTIRE New York Rangers team was there.

Needless to say, I stole a bunch of ESPN paper from the podium and proceeded to get the autographs of the entire team. Richter came over and chatted with me for a few minutes.

But here’s a story I’ll never forget. My soon-to-be uncle just lost his brother tragically to cancer. He was young, and a huge Rangers fan. A few months before the ESPN Zone meet, Adam Graves went to meet his brother in the hospital and stayed for three and half hours talking hockey with him. He passed away shortly after, but he always kept his Adam Graves memorabilia by his bedside.

When Adam came by that day at ESPN Zone, my uncle and aunt were sitting at a table nearby while I waited for autographs. My uncle called Adam over and thanked him for visiting his brother. Adam sat down at the table with them, put his arm on my uncle’s shoulder while he was telling him the story and stayed with them for about 45 minutes. Class act doesn’t even begin to describe the man.

Awesome day. I’ll never ever forget it.