Why I Hate the New York Rangers

As a die-hard Flyers fan, it's not hard to comprehend that I dislike our rival teams.  The Rangers however, are at the top of my list for most hated teams.  I have multiple examples why. (Very opinionated and bias post on my part, I realize this)

For starters, I just don't like the city of New York.  I went to college in Hoboken for a year and was part of the New York scene.  Over the course of that year, I never truly saw a passionate sports fan base.  I have some friends who like the Giants, Devils and Jets but it seemed like they weren't really into it.  People from New York also have a demeanor about them that just turned me off.  Granted, I know I'm completely bias in this as I am from South Philly, but the people there weren't nice at all to me.  The city has an attitude where no one has time for anything, everyone is constantly in a rush.

Finally, to the Rangers.  I realize that the Flyers lost all 6 games to them this year, but that doesn't necessarily make them the better team.  I feel that the goaltending of Henrik Lundqvist is second to none, and the team has a great defensive corp, but I don't know, I feel that even with Brad Richards and Marian Gaborik they just have a slightly inferior offense (not necessarily compared to the Flyers, but amongst the entire league).  They have some players who are very skilled, don't get me wrong, but based on the money these guys get, you would think they would be top of the class type players (Dubinsky makes 4.2 mil a year?)

Simple fact: I don't like John Torterella. Period.  He is a great coach, he won a cup with Tampa back in 2004.  I even realize that he and Lavy have similar in-your-face coaching styles.  But I just don't like how he expects everything to be given to him (somewhat similar to Crosby and Malkin of the Penguins) and how he reacts when things don't go his way.

The Winter Classic ended in a bizarre kind of way, there was a scrum in front of the net, and a penalty shot was awarded to the Flyers.  The call could have gone either way, obviously as a Flyers fan, I like the call, but I get how it could have been called just to give the Flyers one more chance at tying the game.  Danny Briere took the shot and Lundqvist made the stop.  The game is over, alright, the team didn't have enough.  Congrats to the Rangers for winning the biggest game of the regular season. I'm serious, with all of the media and attention this game was getting, good for them, they earned the win.  The thing I don't like however, is how Torterella got mad at that penalty shot.  He was claiming that the game was fixed so it could go to overtime.  I get he has an opinion but the fact is, he won the game.  As Ilya Bryzgalov would say "Why you heff to be mad?"  Torterella was fined 30k for this incident.

Rangers players think they are tough.  I respect Ryan Callahan as a player, he hustles and is a good guy to have on your team.  But players like Brandon Dubinsky really get me going.  He isn't a bad player by any means(he led the team in scoring last year) but I feel like he thinks he's tough when in reality, that isn't quite the case.  I will say that hockey players are a tough bunch, but when you try to agitate an opposing player into making a penalty or fighting and then you just hug that player, you're not tough.  If you look at most of Dubinsky's fights, he just tries to hug the other player so neither can get hit.  Because of that, I just don't respect Brandon Dubinsky.

I looked up this video after I wrote this, excellent example on Dubinsky not wanting to fight after he's picked a partner.  I feel that he lacks respect for the game.  When Flyers players get in fights, I expect them to stand up for themselves and fight back.  Even if Dubinsky was on my favorite team, I still don't think I would like him.

Don't get me started on Sean Avery. I'll keep it short, he is just a nuisance on the ice.  I get that that is his job but to me, he really just wastes space(I realize that isn't nice).  I get what he brings to the table but I just feel that it distracts the team.  Look up Sean Avery on youtube and see what I mean.

Pair all of this together with the fact that the Rangers and Flyers are bitter rivals and you now know why I hate the New York Rangers.  Sorry for venting(not really), maybe I'm just upset at the season sweep(probably), but what I know is that the Flyers and Rangers is one of the best matchups in the league today(fact).