Welcome To Blueshirt Banter: A Band Wagoner's Guide To The New York Rangers

Well the playoffs are right around the corner and for 16 teams that means more hockey to be played and for the other 14, well, they get to work on their golf game a little earlier than they would have liked.

As most of you know the New York Rangers are in 1st place in the Eastern Conference and are looking like a team obsessed on playing hockey in June. Because of this, we here at Blueshirt Banter expect an influx of fans from other teams jumping on the Rangers band wagon and may be spending the postseason hanging out with us and enjoying the playoffs.

With that in mind I figured now would be as good of time as any to lay down some basic tenets of being a Rangers fan and understanding why this team is in first place in an easy to follow bullet pointed format

What you need to know about the Team:

• Henrik Lundqvist in the King, there is no arguing this point and in fact he may not even be mortal as far as we know
• Ryan Callahan is Captain America. Cally, as he is affectionately known, does everything you want a hockey player to do; block shots, finish checks, give 110% for the team, punch Adolf Hitler in the face. Callahan does it all and never asks for anything.
• Chris Kreider is the future, and while he may not be up with the team right away you can spark a pretty good argument just by saying something like "Kreider doesn't like taking the subway"...it could get pretty heated
• This is not your older brother's Rangers team. In the past Glen Sather has thrown buckets of cash at players that have not really lived up to their paycheck and I won't give you a list because then we'd have half of our readership on suicide watch. This iteration of the Rangers have been built from within, yes Slats has thrown money around at Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards, but he has kept guys like Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Carl Hagelin, Michael Del Zotto, all of which the team has drafted and developed. (Fun fact Henrik Lundqvist was selected 205th in the 2000 draft, that's the 7th round. Rick DiPietro was drafted 1st overall that year). The main point of this little diatribe: No matter what success the Rangers have had...they have definitely NOT bought it.
• Thank you Bob Gainey. Every Rangers game day Bob Gainey must die a little inside watching Ryan McDonagh turn into one of the best two way defensemen in the game and all it took for Sather to get him was some overpriced center named Scott Gomez, yeah, THAT Scott Gomez.

After the Jump...a couple things that you might find about Rangers fans here on Blueshirt Banter

What you need to know about the fans

• We're never satisfied...to a fault. Rangers fans have gone through a lot of lean years, and with this current stretch of success recently, fans may start to jump off their nearest bridge on a shift by shift basis. Don't worry about it, they'll be back.
• Torts is an ass...but we love him anyway (well most of us do). Yes, we know head coach John Tortorella is a bit rough around the edged (to put it kindly) but he has this team playing his game and its gotten success and his personality has rubbed off on the team and in some aspects its fans.
• Yes, we know, Denis Potvin is one of the greatest defensemen of all time and the chant is outdated...Rangers fans are working on that one
• Hear us out. We may seem a little boisterous and proud, we can't help it we're New Yorkers, but we actually do understand the details of the game and are willing to have discussions on the Rangers or hockey in general.
• The answer to every Rangers trivia question is, and always will be Anson Carter
• Have fun. That's what we're all about here, enjoying the Rangers but also hockey in general, got a good joke? Share it, don't be afraid to rag on us as long as you keep it good natured.
• One last thing...fuck Cam Talbot, just cause.

Well...I guess that's it, so hit that "join Blueshirt Banter" button on the bottom of the page and join on the conversation, don't be intimidated by us, we're just a bunch of crazy Rangers fans