Tragedy turns into triumph as Rangers rally around their heartbroken teammate to steal a series in the steel city

Photo by Robert Sabo/New York Daily News

Sometimes in life we are reminded that sports is in fact just a game, but sometimes sports is much more than just a game, because it helps give us a few hours to escape from the cruel reality that life brings us.

After game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Pittsburg Penguins, the New York Rangers were a beaten team, playing on dead legs after a brutal schedule that had them playing 6 games in 9 nights. The game four loss put the Rangers down 3-1 in a 7 game series, one loss away from being eliminated from the playoffs against a very talented team. Tragedy struck home and the Rangers would find an unlikely rallying cry to propel them into doing the unthinkable.

Marty St. Louis was a late season addition to the New York Rangers team, a future hall of fame player, who was brought in to help lift this team to win their first Stanley Cup since 1994. He lost his mother who passed away from a heart attack after game 4, a few days before Mother’s Day. The Rangers flew St. Louis to New York then flew him home on a private jet to be with his family. He got to say goodbye to his mother one more time, then with the encouragement from his father made it back to be there with his teammates and fight a different kind of battle. The emotional return of St. Louis helped the Rangers win game 5 and set up game 6 at Madison Square Garden, on Mother’s Day.

The game begin with 18,000 people chanting “Martyyyy!! Martyyyyy!!” In honor of Martin St. Louis. Riding the emotional high provided by the Garden faithful, St. Louis fittingly scored the first goal of the game with his dad and sister in the stands watching the game. His teammates mobbed him after the goal and you can just see the emotion in his face. A few seconds later the Rangers scored another goal and the Garden was rocking. The Rangers won the game 3-1 and it set up a game 7 show down.

After game 6 Martin gave a heartwarming speech to his teammates saying among other things “You guys have been nothing but unbelievable for me the past couple days and I’ll never forget that, this was a team [expletive] win tonight, I couldn’t be prouder to be a [expletive] New York Ranger with you guys.” The Rangers went on to Pittsburg for game 7 and won the game 2-1 behind their world class goaltender Henrik Lundqvist who was nothing short of spectacular. St. Louis had an assist on the game winning goal by Brad Richards, Henrik took care of the rest, saving 35 of 36 shots that were thrown at him.

Now the Rangers move on to the Eastern Conference Finals, an improbable run that no one really saw coming. Picking up and rallying behind their fallen teammate, banding closer together and what could be even more special if they can be the last team standing in June. Sports is just a game most of the time but it also allows you to turn tragedy into triumph, help ease the pain of going through the trials and tribulations of life, even if it is only for a few hours.