Something old, something new; something borrowed, something blue.
This was Islanders 2, Rangers 1 in a shootout at Barclays on Wednesday in the first interborough hockey game in the history of our city, and it was one that honored both sides.
Something old was represented by the rivalry itself that dates back to the Islanders’ 1972-73 inaugural season in the NHL. Something new was the site of the match, representing the first time the teams had met for an Islanders’ home game that wasn’t played at Nassau Coliseum.
Something borrowed, well, that was all of the tradition, and all of the Cup and retired number banners transplanted to the Borough of Kings for safe keeping, and even the great Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies in the house that’s not quite yet a home.
And something blue as identified by the classic blue, orange and white uniforms the Islanders chose to wear for this initial 2015-16 confrontation against the Blueshirts, who were wearing their road white jerseys.
The Battle of New York … City.
It is interesting the Islanders did not choose to wear their Brooklyn-branded, black-and-white, alternate jerseys for this one. But that just might have been too great of a shock to the system. Instead, the franchise deferred bringing the new duds into the rivalry — as opposed to some of the old duds like their 2008-09, 61-point club — until the next installment on Jan. 14.
No doubt it was different here than at the Coliseum, just as it has been different at the Garden since the transformation that robbed the midtown Manhattan building of so much of its soul. But it was Rangers-Islanders in a match that was so much about soul on the ice.
“[The rivalry] definitely adds another element to the game,” Marc Staal said after a steady performance. “You’re emotionally involved before you step on the ice.”
This was a crackling, entertaining game of up-and-down hockey featuring board battles all over the ice in front of a sellout crowd that supplied its own electricity. The obstructed-view seats were filled, even if by a sizeable majority of Ranger fans who had the convenience of the subway at their disposal as opposed to the automobile-dependent islanders forced to make the trek by the LIE/Grand Central/BQE.
On Tuesday, Blueshirts coach Alain Vigneault cracked a little joke when asked his thoughts about the rivalry’s move to Brooklyn from the Long Island.
“Are they still called the Islanders?” Vigneault asked rhetorically.
This was not an insult. This was not Bill Terry, who as manager of the 1933 defending world champion Giants, cracked, “Is Brooklyn still in the league?” when asked if he feared the lowly Dodgers in 1934.
The joke was on him when the Dodgers took the final two games of the season from the Giants, thus knocking Terry’s team out of first place as the Cardinals won the NL pennant.
Brooklyn is in the league now, in the NHL, even if the Islanders are identified as “New York” the way the Mets of Queens are identified.
But of course, the Islanders’ identity is still hooked to the Island, which is where they practice, which is where all of their players live. They live in the suburbs, they commute to the city. The franchise’s identification with Brooklyn will bind with more games like this one.
You know, there once was a Brooklyn team in the NHL, in 1941-42. You could look it up, as a one-time Dodgers manager called Casey Stengel said.
They were known as the Brooklyn Americans even though they played their home games at MSG. They had been the New York Americans since their inaugural 1925-26 season but ownership branded the team “Brooklyn” for ’41-42 with the plan to build an arena in the borough.
But the franchise was suspended following the season when World War II enlistments depleted the roster. The franchise was formally canceled by the NHL in 1946. Owner Red Dutton blamed pressure from the Garden for his team’s death, and vowed the Rangers would not win the Stanley Cup again in his lifetime.
That would be known as “Dutton’s curse.”
Dutton passed in 1987.
The Blueshirts next won the Cup in 1994.
That was something new for the Rangers.
It has become something old.