Posted on 09/20/2001 7:27:50 PM PDT by paul in cape
PHILADELPHIA -- With President Bush on the big screen, hockey suddenly didn't matter anymore, not to the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers or the thousands of fans.
The start of the third period of the NHL exhibition game was delayed and then called off Thursday night as fans demanded to watch the President's speech to Congress instead of the game.
By the time Bush finished speaking 36 minutes later, the teams lined up at center ice to shake hands.
As a video flag waved on the screen, an announcement was made that the game was declared a 2-2 tie after two periods "out of respect for where the United States was headed in the near future."
The speech was about to begin as the intermission clock counted down the final minute in between the second and third periods. The scoreboard said that play was about to resume, and the speech could be seen in the outer concourses.
When the speech was taken off the screen, the 19,117 fans began to boo, before chanting in unison "Leave it on."
As the teams returned to the benches for the third period, the speech was restored to loud cheers.
The players from both teams were as interested in watching the address as the fans. Some kneeled along the side boards, next to the four game officials who straddled the center ice line.
Philadelphia forward Mark Recchi stood in the crease of the Flyers goal with goalie Brian Boucher. New York goalie Dan Blackburn nervously skated back and forth along his goal line.
Wherever the players were, all heads was looking up.
In the speech's most dramatic moments, the fans roared -- drowning out the applause that could be seen on the screen.
Spontaneous cheers of "USA! USA!" also rang out, and fans waved some flags.
But when Bush was speaking, the arena fell silent.
The biggest cheers from the crowd came when a widow of one the passengers, who helped thwart the terrorists' plan to crash a fourth airliner into another building, was singled out by the President. They cheered again when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was recognized by the President.
Fans even roared when New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New York Gov. George Pataki were shown -- almost unheard of for Philadelphia fans to salute New York.
I used to hate Ranger fans, too.
Thank God for Bush, the right person for these times.
Monty
This is a Sea change we are witnessing.
LOL!
You missed the World Junior Championship semifinal game back in the mid-1980s, between Canada and the Soviet Union. The two teams got into a huge bench-clearing brawl, and it was so out of control that they called the game. To get the fans to leave the arena, they turned off the lights while the players were still scrapping on the ice.
I think Czechoslovakia won the championship that year because both Canada and the USSR were disqualified.
Your Welcome. I was just checking the scoreboard to see how the Red Sox did (while there were ads on all 4 cable channels!). They won, but who cares now.
God Bless The USA!
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