Tomorrow night the Islanders and Rangers renew their historic rivalry from Nassau Coliseum. This rivalry was established when the NHL awarded a second franchise in the New York metropolitan area. With the impending start of the World Hockey Association in the fall of 1972, the upstart league had plans to place a team, the Raiders, in the then-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County. The National Hockey League did not want competition in the nation's largest metro area, so despite having expanded two years before, the NHL awarded franchises to Atlanta and Long Island to preempt the WHA. The fledgling New York Islanders had an extra burden to pay in the form of a $4 million territorial fee to the nearby New York Rangers.
With both teams' fans visiting "enemy territory" for games, organized shouting matches and fights break out in the stands. Ranger fans often refer to the Nassau Coliseum as "Garden East" or the "Mausoleum", as Ranger fans often make up at least half and recently much more of the crowd when they visit. The Rangers' fanbase generally comes from the city's five boroughs, Westchester, Fairfield, Long Island and Rockland Counties, and from Northern and Central New Jersey, while the Islanders tend to draw fans from Nassau and Suffolk counties, and parts of eastern Queens. Fans will direct derisive chants at their rivals regardless of whether the teams are actually playing. At each home game, Ranger fans engage in perhaps their most popular chant: whistling the song "Let's Go Band" and punctuating it with "Potvin sucks". This is a reference to retired Islander Hall of Fame defenseman Denis Potvin, who angered Rangers fans by breaking Center Ulf Nilsson's ankle on a clean check. Rangers fans also occasionally bring out the chant "Beat your wife, Potvin, beat your wife", a reference to unconfirmed allegations that Potvin has committed domestic abuse. Lastly, Rangers Fans have taunted Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro by chanting "DP Sucks!"
Islander fans taunted Rangers fans for many years with the chant "1940!" referring to the Rangers having the all-time longest drought without winning the Stanley Cup, until the Blueshirts finally won in 1994.[10] For a period in the late '90s and early 2000s, Islanders fans would punctuate the "Chicken Dance" with chants of "the Rangers suck." The Islanders had stopped playing the song at games for a length of time but as of the 2007–08 season the song is played solely at Islanders-Rangers games. Rangers winger Theoren Fleury used the chant as an excuse for flapping his arms to taunt Islanders enforcer Eric Cairns.
In addition a popular chant was "Crackhead Theo!" referring to Fleury's erratic behavior and history of substance abuse at the time. Islanders fans also sing a song to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It", replacing the standard lyrics with "If you know the Rangers suck, clap your hands." In the early 1990s a group of boisterous fans at Nassau Coliseum would sit in section 329 and mock Rangers announcer Sam Rosen's tag line "It's a power play goal" by announcing in unison "it's a power play goal, screw you Sam Rosen" after each Islander Power Play Goal.
One well-known incident at an Islanders/Philadelphia Flyers game in 2003 turned an innocent holiday promotion at Nassau Coliseum into a on-ice shoving match between Rangers and Islanders fans in Santa suits.
One incident that has been rumored was a brawl between fans of the two teams at a New York Mets game at Shea Stadium in the late 1970s or early 1980s.
As of 2008, the Rangers and Islanders are tied in the all-time series with 100 wins, 100 losses (including overtime and shootout losses), and 19 ties. In the playoffs, however, the Islanders hold the lead with a 20-19 record, and have won five of the eight playoff series' between the two teams.
And to make things more interesting, this is the first ranger game in the united states all season. The Rangers played over in Europe last weekend and have not played since. As for the Islanders they will be without the services of Rick DiPietro who has a concussion after getting hit in the head with a shot in practice. So this is the first meeting of 6 this season between the two clubs and if any of the past games have been an indication this should be a fun game to watch!
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