Late night open thread

Boy, Johnny's vacation at the end of next week couldn't come at a better time. Yes kids, brace yourselves, you'll be going without the Jersey City Desk for a whole week (perish the thought) after next Saturday night. You'll have to muddle through.

We still love our Red Wings and their dynasty. Win one of the next two and we keep it going. So much to be positive with when you're a Red Wings fan. Great front office, quality players who don't embarrass the logo on the front of the sweaters and you get to play in big games.

And if you happen to lose? Well, there's an answer for that too...


Time for Jersey City, After Dark

Rangers retired Adam Graves #9 at MSG last night

Yes puck fans, The New York Rangers retired Adam Graves' #9 last night in a ceremony at MSG that seemed a bit odd to Johnny. First off, Adam Graves is a great human being. No problems with his number hanging in MSG after only 10 years with the club as a player. His community outreach is wonderful. Johnny does wonder though about the cast of the Sopranos being featured. Sure Graves loves the Sopranos but really, what's that got to do with hockey? You bet Lorraine Bracco looked smoking hot, but again, we missed the episode where Christopher and Paulie wandered out of New Jersey's Pine Barrens to catch a Rangers game at MSG.

Never in all his days has Johnny seen one franchise get more mileage out of ONE season than the Rangers do 1994. You'd think that was the only year the NHL ever handed out the Stanley Cup. It was a fine run, but lots of teams have had a one year run like that. The Ducks and Tampa Bay come to mind. Oh, was it because the Rags broke a 54 year cup-less streak? Well hallelujah, why wear that like some badge of honor? Treat it for what it was, an embarrassment.

So, well done and congratulations Adam Graves, you are a class act. To the planners, better luck with the Andy Bathgate and Harry Howell ceremonies later this year.

Tonight Johnny gets to say hello to an old friend, Brendan Shanahan

Since Shanahan recently signed with the Devils, and will hopefully be playing tonight vs Montreal, Johnny will get to say hello to Shanny all over again. Johnny was a regular at Joe Louis Arena (aka The Church) in Detroit for Wings games for years and years. Shanahan as many of you know played in Detroit for many years and won three Stanley Cups. He scored many big goals and beat down many enemy skaters (In Game 4 of the 1997 Western Conference Finals in Detroit, Colorado Nordilanche loser Eric Lacroix reached into a fighting scrum of humanity and managed to pull out one very pissed off Brendan Shanahan as his fight partner. Shanny beat him to the ice like a narc at a biker rally). It'll be good to see him again.

Ya know, when Shanahan used to score goals in Detroit the Joe Louis Arena audio guru would play an Irish jig over the PA. Might not be a bad idea for The Rock to try the same thing.