Draft Party Recap

The Rangers never seem to sign the right free agent and can't get out of the second round, but one thing they can do is throw a party.

The Rangers draft party Friday night at The Hill restaurant was a fun and entertaining time. Raffles, trivia, Nick Fotiu working the room like a politician, three future stars (Kreider, Werek and Bourque) talking and taking pics with every fan and most importantly $3 Bud Lights in a 16 oz. Rangers souvenir cup. I challenge you to find me a bar in New York with that drink special.

The crowd of about 300 fit perfectly into the bar and was pretty fired up leading up to the draft. You could tell Rangers fans were getting a bit anxious as all the top forwards were be taken and by the time the 10th pick came and none of the forwards most Ranger fans coveted were available the consensus was they were going Fowler or Taresenko.

When the Dylan McIlrath pick was made a sense of shock went over the crowd followed by anger and then a very spirited "Fire Sather" chant broke out. Obviously as I know now a big time over-reaction. Except for the "Fire Sather" part.

As far as Kreider, Werek and Bourque go Kreider is a beast he probably could have taken every guy in the place, Werek seemed like a queit kid but was very engaging with the fans and I was most struck with how small Bourque was. I'm 5' 8" and was towering over him (see pic to the right). Ok maybe not towering but you get the point.

The meetup was really amazing as I was able to talk with readers of the blog and say thank you for your support. A big shout out to Fleisch, Chris, Desmond and his wife (congrats on winning the raffle), Nicole (In the classic "I Only Date Rangers Fans" shirt in pic to the left. Bet you guys regret not attending the meetup now), Scotty Hockey, Kevin Baumer of Blueshirt Bulletin (sorry for expletive laced interview after the pick) and everyone else I was lucky enough to hang out with and meet.

And a special shout out to Nicole (yes another Nicole) and her friend who I met in Penn Station after the draft party, both of whom are big fans of the "Blogspot" blog and only heard about the draft party through this blog but didn't come over to the meetup to say hello because they weren't sure if the group that was hanging out was us. You two totally missed out.

Because of the success of the meetup, I definitely want to do more especially now that my friends and I are reconsidering cancelling our season tickets. Plenty of pre and post game meetups at Traks.

I have more pics and will get them up later.