INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - PREGAME WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20TH, 2011.
Fans mill about, slowly filtering to their seats. Air of expectancy with some hostility for those unfortunate few clad in red.
Zambonis finish circling and go off the ice. Lights fade. Fans applaud. Scoreboard clock ticks down to 1:39 and stops.
PUBLIC ADDRESS ANNOUNCER JOE TOLLESON speaks:
TOLLESON
Good evening ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to Madison Square Garden, the World's Most Famous Arena!
Tonight, Game 4 featuring the Washington Capitals (PAUSE FOR BOOS)
And your New York Rangers!
I Am A Ranger video plays:
Fans start LET'S GO RANGERS chant. Ranger logos are projected onto the ice and swirl around the arena.
NHL Playoffs History Will Be Made commercial plays:
Final frame is removed, replaced with: History will be made again. Tonight.
TOLLESON speaks again:
TOLLESON
Ladies and gentlemen, here they are ... the New York Rangers!
Both teams take the ice. Spotlight on the RANGERS gate as they step onto the Garden floor. Lights remain out.
Spotlight pans across the ice to JOHN AMIRANTE on a small carpet. House lights remain off while AMIRANTE sings the NATIONAL ANTHEM.
Crowd roars. Spotlights swirl before going out completely. Single spot comes up again, only not on AMIRANTE. Instead it lands on the Washington Capitals bench. In-house camera shows CAPITALS COACH BRUCE BOUDREAU. A voice thunders over the PA system only it is not TOLLESON or AMIRANTE. It is BOUDREAU. (Starting at 0:31)
BOUDREAU
Well, the one thing, its reputation is far better than the actual building. I mean, it's nothing.
The locker rooms are horrible. The benches are horrible. There's no room for anything.
But the reputation of being in Madison Square Garden is what makes it famous.
Also, our building's a lot louder, too.
So I mean, they can say what they want, but it's not that loud in there.
Lights up. Game on.
SCENE
6 comments:
Epic.
The problem is, it isn't the Garden Faithful that's the issue these days with this team.
Alternate storyboard:
Puck drops. Crowd levels raise roughly 10-15 decibels. Blueshirts establish the zone early. Cue several saves on routine shots by Neuv.
Puck moves to center ice. Cue up more back and forth for roughly 1:30.
At 1:35 fans engage in first Potvin Sucks ritual.
At 2:01 Matt Gilroy makes a bad side rush towards zone, where it is picked off with ease by an attacking Niklas Backstrom, who quickly feeds it to a juggernaut Alex Ovechkin for a clean breakaway. Shot is deposited in upper left corner over the glove of Lundqvist.
Lower crowd levels by roughly 10 dB.
At roughly 2:45 cue up a bad penalty by Matt Hendricks for roughing following brief battle with Sean Avery.
At roughly 3:15 Alex Ovechkin scores shorty on clean breakaway by picking off a pass intended for McCabe at the point.
Cut camera to enraged coach John Tortorella as he calls his timeout.
Cut camera to center ice, with shot including both fired up coach Bruce Boudreau on the bench as well as Ovechkin and his linemates doing the Jose Reyes hip bump in midair atop the NYR logo.
Lower crowd levels another 10-15 dB. Replace with spirited organ music from keyboardist Ray Castoldi echoing off the walls of the building.
Scene.
Here's hoping to all heavens that script goes into development hell and stays on the cutting room floor.
It's up to the team, not the fans, to shut Butterball Bruce up. Let's hope it happens.
GREAT POST!!!!!
Let's get this series back to Washington tied at 2-2!
I agree with Brother P! Send this back to Washington 2-2, and let's steal one in D.C.
Let's Go Rangers!
Did Dolan hijack your account or write you a check? You go off all season at dead Garden and announced phony sellouts, the man's right the Garden is the oldest and most outdated building in the NHL.
It's a dump and unless Trautwig threatened you with a law suit every word Boudreau was spot on.
Only thing more funny was obvious Ranger fans who have not been to a game since 94 tell you they have not been to any games all season or in decades.
World's Most Famous Arena? With less Champions than the Islanders or Devils.
Good thing the Canadians or Islanders/Flyers were not the opposition or 5,000 opposing fans would have been mocking the corporate Knicks fans.
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