The Rangers commemorated Sam Rosen’s 40 years in their broadcasting booth in a special pregame ceremony ahead of their 5-3 win over the Canucks on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
Rosen, who will hang the mic up at the end of this season, went onto the ice with his wife, Jill, to raucous applause from the crowd.
His current broadcast partner, Joe Micheletti, shared some heartfelt words before presenting Rosen with a custom No. 40 jersey signed by the entire team.
The other two former players he shared the booth with, Phil Esposito and John Davidson, also joined the ceremony to gift Rosen a golden mic.
This was just the home-base portion of the Sam Rosen Farewell Tour, which has been celebrated around the NHL all season.
There’s a possibility it will conclude before the playoffs if the Rangers don’t make it, but the 77-year-old is holding onto hope.
“I’m trying to drag this team into the playoffs with me,” Rosen said before the game. “I walk around the locker room at practice giving them encouragement, ‘Come on guys! You can do it!’ They’re not listening to me. But hopefully that’ll change in the next couple of weeks.”
Rosen started to really consider retirement when he got sick last May and missed a couple of the Rangers playoff games. That’s when he began having conversations with his wife and family, noting that he’s always said if his level of performance started to fall off, he wanted to be told.
The idea of going out on top was important to Rosen, who will certainly leave fans wanting more.
Growing up a major sports fan in Brooklyn, Rosen was humbled to be honored at the Garden.
“I’m nervous about it — to be the center of attention here in this building, a building that I’ve been coming to since it opened in ’68, when we had the gondola as our broadcast location,” Rosen said beforehand. “I’ve felt the crowds. I’ve felt the building shake. I remember a Billy Joel concert on New Year’s Eve, and I said to my wife at the time, ‘If the Rangers ever win the Cup, it’s going to be just like this — and even better.’ And in ’94, that was the greatest moment.
“To do a Game 7 in your home building, for the team that I’ve rooted for all my life, and to call that game, it can’t get any better than that.”
After missing the prior game because of illness, Matt Rempe was back in the lineup in his usual post on the right wing of the fourth line next to Brennan Othmann and Juuso Parssinen.
As a result, Brett Berard served as a healthy scratch for the first time since the Winnipeg game.
The Rangers are off on Sunday before they venture to California for a three-game road trip against the Kings, Ducks and Sharks.
