Spina's Story

How many of you have been on a long trip? It could be with your family for a week somewhere or even a field trip. When you get home, you feel super tired right?  Well, I went on a school field trip to Washington DC for the week in May and it was during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. My favorite hockey team, the New York Rangers were still playing for the championship (The Stanley Cup). I'm a die hard Rangers fan so I was super pumped when I got a call on Sunday morning the day before I left for Washington. One of my dad's friends calls me and says, "Hey Nick, I have tickets to Game 5 at The Garden (Madison Square Garden) Friday Night and me and your dad want you to go. Do you think you would be able to make it?" Obviously, I'm super pumped because I would really love to watch the Rangers in the playoffs, but my only issue is that I would be getting back Friday night and the game would have already been over by the time I get back home to Canton. So the next morning, my dad suggests, what if I picked you up in New Jersey on your ride home and then we drove from there into the city? That wasn't going to work out because that would only leave us an hour to get to New York before puck drop so we would be late plus Friday night traffic into New York City would be a nightmare. So I am under the impression that I won't be able to go to the game as my dad leaves for work. He tells me, I'll find a way. So when my dad comes home, he says, I GOT IT!!!! as he walks into the house that night. So night before, my dad was going to drive to LaGuardia Airport and get a 8 am flight in the morning direct to Washington DC. He flew down and met me at The Capitol Building. From there, we took a train from Washington DC to Penn Station, which is right under Madison Square Garden just in time for puck drop. This is an important story for me and a memorable one at that because my love for the Rangers is so strong and so important to me because it is part of my identity. At my old school, when you saw the Rangers logo, you thought of Nick Spina. The story also shows how much my dad knew I wanted to go to that game so he made special arrangements to fly to DC and have us take a train back to NY just so that I would be happy and that we could see the game. My dad is a very important figure in my life which also makes this story special to me. What made everything even better, is that the Rangers stayed alive in the series, winning 2-1 in Overtime. And I can say I was in the building to see it. Now, after a week in DC and an overtime game at Madison Square Garden, can you now picture how tired I was the next day? :)

The Rangers ended on going to Game 7 back at the Garden winning in dramatic fashion with an overtime goal once again. Unfortunately, the Rangers lost in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final (the round before the finals) The highlights for the game I went to are above. Let's Go Rangers!