D.C. Sports Bog on Well-Behaved Rangers Fans

Shortly before Game 6 began, I was walking through the 300 level of Madison Square Garden where I saw a Rangers fan. Asleep. Head lolling back and forth. The whole bit.

More than an hour later, I walked up through a different section and saw a different fan. Eyes closed. Off in some different, less Russian place. I don't know if he was technically in REM Land, but he looked every bit as sleepy as the Rangers.

So yeah, it wasn't exactly the raucous cauldron of vein-popping hatred I had predicted after seeing those front-row Caps fans enter into a screaming match with Rangers boss John Tortorella on Friday at Verizon Center. If you wandered down to the equivalent area of Madison Square Garden on Sunday--front few rows, behind the visiting bench--the mood was . . . well . . .

"Depressing," offered Danny Nazaruk.

"But at least we don't live in a city filled with politicians, right?" his friend, John Demase, said hopefully.

The Rangers' letter to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman claimed that D.C. fans had been tossing out homophobic insults at the Rangers' bench. And stand-in coach Jim Schoenfeld explained that Tortorella was merely standing up for his players against a verbal assault from the stands.

"I know the thing that triggered it, and it wasn't any sling they threw at him, and there were many," he said. "It's what they said about one of his players. And it's easy to say you've gotta be in control, you've got to keep it in check, you've got to turn the other way, there are rules. But there's a certain part of your being when you're a coach and it's just like being a parent, and there's certain things you'll put up with when people slander your kids. And there's a certain line that people cross. And that's what happened with John. You can say what you want to Torts. I know the man. Call him whatever you want. He'll tell you what to do with your horse, but he's okay with that. But DON'T get down on the people he cares about. He'll fight for them. He will fight for them, and that's what he did."

All that said, how did those fans in the front rows of Madison Square Garden act toward the Caps?

"Like every other New Yorker: with respect," Derek Wilbert said. "We're not trash, like D.C. fans, and you can quote that."

"A lot of people yelling, but no cursing," Jack Jaredstruss added. "Legitimate hockey fans, calling it like it is."

Of course, part of the issue may have been the massive number of celebrities occupying those prime seats. The team distributed a print-out listing Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg, Chloe Sevigny, Matthew Modine, Will Arnett and Cyndi Lauper among the VIPs. Lauper was sitting directly behind the Capitals' penalty box, but she said she wasn't getting into it with the sin-binners.

"We're New Yorkers, we believe in showing it on the ice," Lauper said. "I don't heckle. I may boo once in a while. Now, I heckle the refs for not calling a horrible foul, which sends a horrible message to the children."

Yes, she was referring to Donald Brashear. Across the ice and behind the bench, Adam Rosen and Arthur Gordon were doing their part to make the arena inhospitable. They heckled Sergei Fedorov about Anna Kournikova. They heckled Brashear about being a goon. They heckled Alex Ovechkin about spraying his Gatorade onto the ice, which they interpreted as disrespect.

"He thinks he's all that and a bag of chips," Gordon told me. "He ain't even a bag of chips. I told him to go to Brighton Beach; we'd take care of him. He'll know what I mean."

"He said it smells here," Rosen added. "Listen, you don't come into the world's most famous arena and bash it. You don't say that about Madison Square Garden. I don't care if you score 80 goals, you're not bigger than Madison Square Garden."

Rosen earned an admirer in the Knicks' Chris Duhon, who was sitting right behind Caps Coach Bruce Boudreau, along with teammate Danilo Gallinari. But they weren't about to stand up like that sweatpants-wearing D.C. fan, trading insults with the opposition.

I didn't see any Free Torts signs, nor were there any noticeable cheers in honor of the missing coach. But I did hear at least one fan reference the rumor that a D.C. fan had tossed a beverage on Tortorella. I mentioned that rumor to Lauper.

"Maybe New Yorkers got more class," she suggested.