Adam Graves- Heart of a Ranger
On February 3rd 2009, the New York Rangers are honoring Adam Graves for his 11 years of excellence in the blue and white sweater. Adam Graves had to be the best Ranger on the ice other than Mark Messier and Brian Leech. He was the most dedicated Ranger with a great sense of pride. Blood and stitches wouldn’t even stop him. Tuesday night, when the Rangers honor Graves by raising his No. 9 to the Madison Square Garden rafters, he’ll have a chance to talk to every Ranger fan and teammate he ever touched and tell them exactly how he feels about them and why he is who he is.
Graves will be the fourth member of the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup championship team to have his number retired. His No. 9 will join Mike Richter’s No. 35, Mark Messier’s No. 11 and Brian Leetch’s No. 2.
“I understand how lucky and fortunate I am,” Graves said Monday. “I didn’t realize what goes through your heart and mind leading up to this. This has been a hard time for me as far as feeling very humble. I honestly just feel so privileged.”
Walking through the tunnel meeting and greeting all the people Adam has dealt with throughout his life was a touching moment. Graves received many gifts including a signed guitar by Bruce Springsteen, a picture with #9 and Graves, and a surprise visit from his favorite TV show THE SOPRANOS. The speeches were strong, and Mark Messier of course made crying cool. Adam Graves held it in all night but finally broke open in tears, when his #9 was raised into the Garden Rafters.
Madison Square Garden was packed at 20,000 people who were all cheering “Adam! Adam!” and chanting the “Dennis Potvin” chant. The best chant of them all yesterday was Mark Messier saying “Tonight’s not about honoring Adam’s stats; tonights about honoring a man and a champion.”
Tuesday night was a celebration of a superb man who happened to be an amazing Ranger. It was for a man whose time and efforts on and off the ice could not be said in words. Not only was Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Mike Richter were on hand, other important members of that ’94 championship team were present. Jeff Beukeboom walked to center ice to the traditional sounds of “Booook!” Stephane Matteau received a rousing ovation with his heroic goal in double OT in Game 7 of the ’94 Conference Finals. Sergei Nemchinov and Glenn Healy also got a big ovation as well.
All in all it was a great night for Adam Graves, his family, the Rangers organization and the great/passionate fans of New York.
LETS GO RANGERS!
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Its a shame that no one commented on this article yet, I feel that this is a good article… mostly because I created it, but that the topic is good as well
Let’s go rangers!!
LETS GO RANGERS