NYI VS. NYR FANS AT THE COLISEUM
A highly-scientific study
Can’t tell you how many times over the last two decades I’d be sitting next to a writer in the Coliseum press box and he’d say, “Wow, more Rangers fans here tonight than Islanders fans.” Then the Islanders would get the first goal, 70% of the place would go nuts and he’d say, “Scratch that.”
But don’t get me wrong: Rangers fans show up in full force. And 6,000 Rangers fans can easily sound like 12,000 when their team is doing well. Of course, the best is when both teams are competing. On those nights, there’s nothing like it in pro sports.
Here’s my formula. No matter what percentage of Islanders vs. Rangers fans it looks to be when the game starts, add 20% to the fan ratio of the team that scores first. And if either the Islanders or Rangers build a big lead, fuhgettaboutit. (By the way, what’s up with the visiting team doing so well in this series lately?).
One man’s estimate of the approximate ratio of Islanders fans to Rangers fans at the Coliseum through the generations…
1972: The NYI Are Born
75% Rangers fans - 25% Islanders fans
1975: Post-J.P. Parise
Islanders 50% - Rangers 50%
1978: Islanders on the Verge
Islanders 65% - Rangers 35%
1980: Stanley Cup Champions
Islanders 75% - Rangers 25%
1983: Dynasty
Islanders 80% - Rangers 20%
1988: The Hall of Famers Retire
Islanders 70% - Rangers 30%
1993: Turgeon & Co.
Islanders 75% - Rangers 25%
1994: The Darkest Day - Game 4, First Round
Start of Game: Islanders 50% - Rangers 50%
Final 5 Minutes: Rangers 95% - Islanders 5%
1995: Rangers Post-Cup
Islanders 50% - Rangers 50%
1997: Islanders Gory Days
Rangers 55% - Islanders 45%
2001: Islanders Revival
Islanders 65% - Rangers 35%
2003: NYI Good, NYR Not
Islanders 75% - Rangers 25%
January 13, 2009
Islanders 50% - Rangers 50%
If one of the teams takes a two-goal lead, it will seem 70-30.
Thanks to PB reader Dino for the image of his nephews. Comments.
57 Responses to “NYI VS. NYR FANS AT THE COLISEUM
A highly-scientific study”
Please Wait
Haha great job with the research, CB. I’d like to see numbers for Isles fans at the Garden - of which I have been one on many occasions, including the first shootout in the history of both teams (which we won thanks to Miro). The banter can get a bit ugly during the game, but I’ve generally had the pleasure of shaking hands with people and smiling on the way out regardless of the final score.
Seems like someone needs to call CPS. Dressing an infant in Rangers attire sure sounds like child abuse to me!
LETS GO ISLANDERS!!
Speaking of attendance.
Given the economy and the fact that the team is the worst in the league, any chance Wang reduces ticket prices for the remainder of the season?
I’d like to make the trip from Boston this year. Problem is that I’ve taken a hit financially (like everyone else) and those proces are a little steep for me.
Any word if there is talk of doing this?
I think that is a pretty fair synopsis. The past 3 years has been the worst I’ve ever seen it, in terms of ranger fans at the coliseum.
It should be against the law to sell your tix to a rangers fan, however in this economy and with this team, you really can’t fault a season ticket holder trying to recoup some of the losses.
Ken, I agree with Crhis- I think it was even worse in the dark days of the 90s. The Rangers were terrible then too, so all they had was the hope of beating us (and vice versa lol)
Those kids are adorable, but that’s taking nature vs. nurture a bit too far. You don’t want to doom the kid on the right to life without a Cup. And is it just me, or is he already whining?
Having been to them all since the beginning, one of the worst times was the 2001-02 season where we made the playoffs, the Rangers did not, but they beat us all six games.
I can still hear the “You can’t beat us” chant….SW
Hey Chris, would you give us your take on Colliton. This year he seems like he is at a standstill. Is he ever going to get a legit shot here or is he the new Justin Mapletoff…SW
Hi Chris, sounds like the Lightning are on the verge of moving Lecavalier and tanking the season…should we be worried about maintaining our grip on last?
@Darth - I was there for that game too as a guest of my raggie fan cousin. Awesome game, and great train ride home.
Was an awesome game, Adam. I got tons of crap leaving the arena, but it was well worth it. Plus, I actually went the next night, too, so I got to both ends of the home and home - we won that one, too, 5-4 I believe.
was just watching Bob Bourne on Youtube skate through all 5 Rangers for the best single-handed end-to-end rush of all time…hey, CB, when are the Islanders (or NHL properties) going to put out a DVD box set for the Islanders? and can they please put out an updated version of the video “Never Say Die” (my VCR tape is getting awfully old, and I’d also like to see updates from the 00’s, and deletion of Hempstead’s Village Idiot saying he was going to build through the draft)
As an Isles fan, there’s nothing more satisfying than walking into MSG wearing my “RANGERS SUCK” shirt with pride. When the puck drops, I throw on the Denis Potvin jersey. By the end of the game, being able to walk out of the arena with your head held high after an Islander win = PRICELESS.
For those of you who have been to MSG on game night and walk out of the main entrance onto whatever street it is in Manhattan, you know of the horn player looking to make an extra buck or two. It’s extra special sweet to be able to convince him to play the Chicken Dance on the horn for a buck or two.
rb - Check this link out -
http://www.amazon.com/Nhl-York-Islanders-Greatests-Games/dp/B001LPWGGO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1227674797&sr=1-2
I cheered for the Islanders at MSG when I was 10 in 1980 and had beer thrown on me…when I was 10. I haven’t been back since. I love my team and I always support them, even now that I live in Chicago, but I don’t want to have to fight or throw away my shirt after rooting for my team.
This team needs a good ole fashioned bench clearing.
That’s all I’m sayin.
1994…. the chants of Sweep Sweep Sweep by a Coliseum full of Ranger fans still makes me puke.
What? No pi charts?
THought that may have been an old shot of the Gallof boys from their infancy when the rivalry first began.
i was at the garden when Cairns and McCarthy had the follow up fight to the chicken dance incident. There were A LOT of islander fans in the building that night. My section in the 400’s was majority isles fans.
A few years ago I was at MSG with a buddy and it was a St. Patrick’s day match up. I remember a few fights where the Isles fans pummeled the Rag$ fans. And on that day I had a cup of scotch/whiskey dumped over my head. I still have the stains on my home Aucoin jersey as my battle wound.
Wow… The Islanders vs. Rangers tonight and not a single article in NEWSDAY about the game by either Islanders nor Rangers beat writers. Incredible. Not even a headline or a mention of the game???
DOC
Justin: I hear ya on that, MSG fans especially in those days were animals, during the 81 playoffs I was 12 and at a MSG game, some guy who was walking w/ crutches reached across the asile and jammed the end of the crutch into my side after an Isle goal while ushers and security guards watched and looked the other way. MSG has tamed a bit, especially since it was renovated, prices went up and some of the rif raff was forced out.
The 1984 Game 5 vs. the Rag$ (Kenny Morrow OT goal as the game winner) was the most compelling hockey game I ever attended. Better than the 1983 Cup Winning game ( the only one I could get to )
RELIEF. And the LOOK OF DEATH in the faces of the Rag fans is still a treasured memory.
How I wish I could have been at the Garden for the JP Parise game.
Pat
Right on Pat, I’ve been to many of the NYI historic games, but the Kenny Morrow OT game was the best game I’ve ever seen. Honorable mention May 24th and the 15 game winning streak v. Colorado where J.T. scored w/ a minute to go. Chico played his heart out that game.
That definitely was the “Darkest Day” . . Worst hockey experience of my life - NVMC game 4. . 1994 playoffs.
Really looking forward to seeing Neilsen back in the lineup tonight!
I been to only one Isles@(dirty)Rags game, with my dad (a Rangers fan) a few years ago and it was pretty peaceful, no one said anything to me as the whole night I was in my Islanders jersey and we even won. If anything, my Isles jersey helped us find a perfect parking spot 3 blocks away from MSG.
On another note, I just came accross an autographed Oleg Kvasha puck that my uncle gave me a while ago… oh I had a great laugh… then almost cried… and then walked away from it… I’m just saying
That’s a great photo, sorry i couldn’t resist doing this.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r49/stevedepot/babies1.jpg
I liked it better when you were critical of the team.
>> KP >> thanks for the link to classic games on DVD…hope it gets lots of orders from some of hockey’s longest suffering fans
I have to agree with #28 Tim! CB, did the Lines of comunication open up yet! You cant keep us in limbo after you brought it to our attention!
Really would be good to grab a win tonight. Hurts to hear Rangers fans in our building. Some of my best Isles/Rags games were two years ago at MSG when DP stoned’em cold, and a whole section of isles fans give it to them in their home. or on a lesser note, Brett Lindros at the Coliseum slamming into Ricther(only bright spot of that game) Lets hear the Isle fans tonight, I know my voice will be gone by end 2nd.
That pic is adorable!! tiny fans in the making..sooooo cute!
Good post C! love walking down memory lane..
hopefully we will rise again, it’ll be a long haul before such happens but never say never..keep the faith!
After Garth snow gave Islander fans that awesome pep talk on this blog a couple of weeks ago, about how 30th place is awesome & how 27th place next year will be even better, Islander fans will be stoked for this match-up.
Sometimes I wonder if the Isles “organization” has a grasp of things. Are they able to actually SEE the world around them & view it like their customers do? View it like any OTHER NY sports franchise does?
KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER - I read that in a book about business…I’m sure I did. The Isles don’t know their customer. Never have. BUT in fairness to the Isles, it’s hard to get to know your customer when you ignore them.
THOSE ARE MY NEPHEWS…MY BROTHER IN LAW IS A RANGERS FAN, BUT A RESPECTFUL ONE..NOT YOUR TYPICAL RANGER FAN…..WE ARE HAVING A BIT OF A PROBLEM WHAT TEAM THEY WILL BE A FAN OF, BUT JUDGING FROM THIS PIC….I THINK THEY ARE BOTH ISLANDER FANS
1) When did the Rangers get Jarkko Rutuu? That kid in the Ranger garb seems poised to take a big bite outta the other kid.
2) Meanwhile the isles kid is playing” Pull my finger” ; )
I remember being at MSG for the first Isles/Rags game after 9/11. There were still 5 fights in my section, which was pretty evenly split. Need I say more?
Chris - Any news about Mike Sillinger and Andy Sutton? Thanks!
Billy from Isles Fan Central will be epiletic about this particular blog. The guy goes nuts about talk about Ranger fans in the Coliseum.
Went to my first Isles-Rangers game at MSG in February ‘93 when I was 13. Isles went up early 2-0, Rangers tied it at 2, and #77 scored in OT for us to win one of the best regular season games I’ve ever seen. Of course, me being unaware of my surroundings, I immediately started yelling at Ranger fans, to which my father said “remember, they won’t beat up a kid, but they will beat up a 40-year old man w/ a Bossy jersey.” On the LIRR back home, some drunken Ranger fan was yelling at an Isles ad on the train, and decided to rip it down, and loudly threatened all the Isles fans on the train. Being that we outnumbered the guy, plus the fact he could barely walk w/o falling down, he probably regretted it. I think he was thrown off the train at Jamaica. Poor schlub.
Worst game was one in March ‘96, when we sucked, Rangers were great, and we were wearing fishsticks. Sat way up in the Coliseum, where I was surrounded by Ranger fans. Marty McInnis scored early on a breakaway, then we proceeded to lose 5-1. Awful, just awful. Everything about it. Made me sick.
Either way, the worse team usually finds a way to win, and I think we’ve defined “worse” this season, so LETS GO ISLANDERS!!!
Just remind Rags fans about ol’ Pierre scoring his 50th at the Garden in OT and Isles fans absolutly drowning the few Rags fans out of the building. Or the night Yashin scored a hat trick there in the first and how we dominated the stands. Or a couple of years ago when it was the Isles fans chanting “You Can’t Beat Us” at MSG. Or the night in March 2003 that when Scatch scored the first goal there was nothing but orange in the stands. It definately can go both ways.
Any chance we’ll see FRITZ tonight?
Best news from last night was Tampa winning! Keep up the good work boys and we may be able to extend our lead in the Tavares stakes for the best shot in the lottery
I hope Gordon takes the rivalry seriously. I thought the last two years were especially good because it seemed that both Renney and Nolan understood. You can tell Renney absolutely hates to lose to the Isles, but I don’t know if anyone’s ever interviewed Gordon on how he views the games against the Rangers. Maybe someone has and I missed it. I hope he wouldn’t give one of those, “It’s big for the fans but it’s just one game out of many” answers.
How embarrassing to be an Islanders fan tonight and wear any Islanders emblems. Tonight it is the NHL Rangers vs. the AHL Islanders. Any resemblance between the Islander Organization and a professional NHL caliber run franchise is purely coincidental. To call the Isles Organization a Mickey Mouse organization is an insult to Mickey Mouse.
hey mike, let me know around 10:30pm if you still feel the same way, what happens if the overpriced MSG’rs lose, that would be embarassing huh.
@mike burns- rebuilding is rough, we all admit it. But lets face facts, the Rangers have won exactly 1 cup in the past 70 years or so, and are not going to do it this year. Add the fact that they are capped out for the near future. Penguins are going to be better than the Rangers when healthy again, Caps already are, Canadiens, Bruins. All those teams are doing it with young players. Thats the Isles plan as well. The Rangers are hanging on with a core of long term contracts, none of which are tradeable in the near future. AHL for now possibly, but they have a future and finally a plan.
CB- Any way snow trades the 1st bailey and okoposo for Lecalvier>>> I hope he doesnt lol…
crazy joe you should kick mike burns in the head with out a helmet…does anyone else think its funny that the rangers hate every dman they have had since Leetch….Poti, Malek, Rosival, Redden…i guess they tolerate Staal for now
Stumpy32 on Jan 13th, 2009 11:15:23 said:
“Worst game was one in March ‘96, when we sucked, Rangers were great, and we were wearing fishsticks. Sat way up in the Coliseum, where I was surrounded by Ranger fans. Marty McInnis scored early on a breakaway, then we proceeded to lose 5-1. Awful, just awful. Everything about it. Made me sick…”
Wow- I was at that game. Thanks for bringing back the traumatic memory lol.
How about 2 seasons ago game at MSG when Shanahan had a hat trick and Kozlov’s answer to this was 4 goals? It was a good one.
I don’t, usualy, pay any attention to Rag’s fans at the Barn neither at MSG. My suggestion to others: try to do the same to avoid breaking some Rag’s fan body parts. It will be more fun to see Isles to win this one. With this young roster we will see passion and good tempo(not including Comrie). Nate and Franz are welcomed back. It is time for Guerin to score some. And for Mark Srait: Zherdev is your property for the whole night.
GO ISLES!!!
Moose - don’t forget Kalinin. I thought it was hysterical during the last Isles-Rangers game that the Rangers fans were booing half of their defense core every time one of them touched the puck.
Make no mistake, the Rangers aew a young team. Look at the lineup tonight. Their team is younger than the team we started the season with. But they are winning, while the Isles are “rebuilding”:
Lundquist
Staal
Girardi
Zherdev
Dubinsky
Prucha
Dawes
Sjostrom
Korpikowski
Callahan
Sangunetti (for Rosival)
That’s more than half the lineup in their 1,2 or 3rd years.
I give the Rangers credit. They are winning, and working younger players in the lineup. That’s what the Isles wanted to do and have failed at.
It’s the hard cold truth.
Brian (#52) - Keep something in mind though, the rags have Glen Sather as their GM. The Isles are saddled with a back-up goalie. Glen was a head coach, I also believe he was a scout, he worked his way through the ranks to get the GM title. Garth? Besides none, what credentials does he have? If I didn’t dislike Garth so much I’d pity him. Charlie is just giving him a stage to humiliate himself on and Garth is doing a great job at it.
Totally disingenuous to say the Rag$ are younger without pointing out that that their go to guys are vets. Plus, I don’t think they’re all that good. They are a mediocre team bailed out time and again by a stellar goalie.
The Rangers are a nice team. That’s all. Find any honest Ranger fan, and they’ll say exactly what the rest of the league says. Without Lundquist, they’re a borderline playoff team, somewhere between #8-10. With him, they could surprise someone in the first round, but never get past the second. Seems like, effectively, they’re us, circa 2003-2007.
The Rangers leading scorer is 23 years old. Their best d-man is 20. Their goalie is young. Their veteran d-man are liabilities and if they could rid themselves of redden and Roszival, they’d be better for it. Meanwhile, the Isles go to players without injuries are Weight Guerin and Streit. All over 30. Face it, opening night, the Rangers were a younger team than the Islanders. And with the Isles proving to be a monumental bust, they are now being forced to play the youth; the same kind of youth the Rangers have been playing with all season.
Just out of curiosity, where do you peg the numbers at MSG over the years?