Last Night: Was The Rangers Loss Like the Stock Market Crash of 1929?
If you missed it this weekend, the NHL's New York Rangers lost Game 7 of their semi-final hockey match with Tampa Bay. Being a New Yorker, one who enjoys watching the sport of hockey, and a life-long Ranger fan, disappointment descended on my spirit Friday night with this ignominious defeat - ignominious because it was the second home loss in a row where our boys were shut out 2-0. Shut out, as in they didn't score a single goal. That's six straight scoreless periods for the team that finished the season with the best record in the NHL, a team that sported a well-oiled offense most of the season.
While the disappointment and slight disgust at the lackluster performance of my team makes perfect sense, one can't suffer long in the purgatory of a failed playoff effort by a team that historically disappoints, one way of the other. Real Ranger fans know what I'm talking about here. As a good friend noted during this recent playoff run: 1994 (the Rangers last Stanley Cup, and first in the 54 years preceding) will likely be the only Cup of our lifetimes. I brushed the comment off, like a bread crumb clinging to my shirt, but he may be right after all.
But now, having let the loss stew for a while, it occurs to me that those two 2-0 shutouts at home may prove to be like the stock market crash of 1929, especially in light of the Rangers glorious 7-3 victory in Tampa Bay nestled, now ingloriously, in between the two losses. When the market famously collapsed in 1929, the wipe out was historic. But rather quickly a dramatic turn-around dragged stock prices from the depths over the ensuing years. It looked as if a new bull market had thrashed the bear of 1929. How many people considered or perhaps even invested whatever money they had left into this erstwhile bull? However many these were, 1932 brought devastation, Round 2, as the market now fell even lower, landing roughly 80% below the top set in 1929 before the Great Crash.
It took decades before people returned to stock market. Trading volume fell and stock trading remained a morbid subject until the 1950s and 1960s. Twice burned, people left in disgust and most never came back. It took a new generation of naive investors to turn again to stocks.
Will the Rangers two-pronged collapse in Games 5 and 7, sandwiching that 7-3 win, effect us New York hockey fans similarly? Will we turn with disgust from our boys, never to return to "the fastest sport on earth," settling instead for something more calm and quaint like baseball? Hardly. Will we, alternately, turn our affections to the two other local teams, the Devils and the Islanders? Unlikely. No, chances are, when the preseason action picks up again in the fall, we'll be lured again to those dashing young men slicing through the ice, passing and shooting that hard frozen rubber puck, their blinding speed interrupted only by the crashing of bodies that pepper the speed and beauty of the game when played with gusto.
In short, we'll likely be back next year to root, root, root for the home team yet again.
While the disappointment and slight disgust at the lackluster performance of my team makes perfect sense, one can't suffer long in the purgatory of a failed playoff effort by a team that historically disappoints, one way of the other. Real Ranger fans know what I'm talking about here. As a good friend noted during this recent playoff run: 1994 (the Rangers last Stanley Cup, and first in the 54 years preceding) will likely be the only Cup of our lifetimes. I brushed the comment off, like a bread crumb clinging to my shirt, but he may be right after all.
But now, having let the loss stew for a while, it occurs to me that those two 2-0 shutouts at home may prove to be like the stock market crash of 1929, especially in light of the Rangers glorious 7-3 victory in Tampa Bay nestled, now ingloriously, in between the two losses. When the market famously collapsed in 1929, the wipe out was historic. But rather quickly a dramatic turn-around dragged stock prices from the depths over the ensuing years. It looked as if a new bull market had thrashed the bear of 1929. How many people considered or perhaps even invested whatever money they had left into this erstwhile bull? However many these were, 1932 brought devastation, Round 2, as the market now fell even lower, landing roughly 80% below the top set in 1929 before the Great Crash.
It took decades before people returned to stock market. Trading volume fell and stock trading remained a morbid subject until the 1950s and 1960s. Twice burned, people left in disgust and most never came back. It took a new generation of naive investors to turn again to stocks.
Will the Rangers two-pronged collapse in Games 5 and 7, sandwiching that 7-3 win, effect us New York hockey fans similarly? Will we turn with disgust from our boys, never to return to "the fastest sport on earth," settling instead for something more calm and quaint like baseball? Hardly. Will we, alternately, turn our affections to the two other local teams, the Devils and the Islanders? Unlikely. No, chances are, when the preseason action picks up again in the fall, we'll be lured again to those dashing young men slicing through the ice, passing and shooting that hard frozen rubber puck, their blinding speed interrupted only by the crashing of bodies that pepper the speed and beauty of the game when played with gusto.
In short, we'll likely be back next year to root, root, root for the home team yet again.
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