Before the old Madison Square Garden closed on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Street in 1968, it was possible to see three good hockey games on a Sunday.
Apart from the evening Rangers game, which then started at 8:30 p.m., the afternoon bill was an amateur double-header often as much fun as the NHL offering.
At 1:30 p.m. there’d be a Metropolitan Hockey League game featuring any two of the following teams: Manhattan Arrows, Jamaica Hawks, Brooklyn Torpedoes and Sands Point Tigers.
The players – ranging from Junior level to adults – included former high school and college stars as well as graduates from the local roller hockey leagues such as the Mullen Brothers, Brian and Joe who graduated to the NHL.
The Rangers farm team, the New York Rovers, then would play starting at 3:30 p.m. many of the Rovers – in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League – eventually would make it to the Blueshirts.
Neil and Mac Colville, stars of the 1940 Stanley Cup champion Rangers, got their starts with the Rovers as did Hall of Fame goalie Gump Worsley.
There were two Met League brother acts that I desperately wanted to be like the Mullen Brothers and become Rangers.
(Note: This is not a joke!) Their names were Jim Hatrick and Ray Hatrick. (Remember: I’m not making this up.) The Hatrick brothers were good players in their Met League milieu. However, unlike the Mullens, they never made it to the NHL.
But imagine the potential unreal headline if either one of them ever did make it to the Blueshirts: HAT TRICK SCORES A HAT TRICK FOR THE RANGERS!
(It still breaks me up!)