We Are the Rangers: The Oral History of the New York Rangers

Although I'm a Boston Bruins fan (not NY Rangers), I found the early history of hockey in NY fun and interesting to read. I'm sure much of the same stories could be told by the Bruins. It's also quite amazing as a hockey fan to see how the sport started in terms of equipment, dedication and desire to be part of it.

A Christmas gift for a total Ranger fan, and very well received. I love it when a gift makes the recipient burst into a big smile, this book did just that. I know nothing about the Rangers or hockey, but I know this book must be pretty darn good!

I've been a New York Rangers fan since childhood. This book walked me through so many memories of watching the games with my late father. Its a great reference, conversation piece. Makes a great gift. Going to get my copy autographed by Stan Fischler and hopefully, Rod Gilbert.

can't put the book down

this is a gift for a Ranger fan. It came in plenty of time

Great read for a true blue shirts fan

If your a Ranger fan , great reading.

This book calls itself the oral history of the Rangers, which leads you to expect recollections spread out over time that above all tries to be *comprehensive* in telling the history of the team. It is nothing alas of the kind. What this book really is, is Stan Fischler recycling his old material and interspersing it with stuff from other books that is not fresh or groundbreaking in the least. When I see him admit in his acknowledgments that things like the Frank Boucher interview came from earlier books, I find myself wondering "Why?" It's not that the Boucher interview is uninteresting (in fact it's the best part of the whole thing) but couldn't I get something fresh, reflecting some original research? It was also infuriating to see an interview with the late Bill Chadwick that was entirely about his refereeing career and had nothing on his days as a Ranger broadcaster which for someone like me, who became a fan in the 70s thanks to Bill and Jim Gordon (Fischler gracelessly leaves out Gordon's name when mentioning in passing Chadwick's announcing days, suggesting he only worked with Marv Albert) is the story I want to read more about.As I went through this, I then discovered further to my disgust that for Stan Fischler, Ranger history effectively ends with the dawn of the Francis era and then doesn't resume until the 94 Cup and beyond. Because you get nothing and I mean NOTHING covering the Rangers of the 60s, 70s or 80s. Oh, you get a few pages of a Rod Gilbert profile that you could get out of any Internet profile but there's no interview. An interview with the only 80s player in the book, James Patrick gives us loads of stuff on his days coming up before he was a Ranger but nothing about the years he played there until he talks about being traded in 93. It's as if for Fischler, this period of Ranger history doesn't even merit any discussion whatsoever.But that shouldn't be surprising since what Fischler leaves out of this book is how in the 70s, this one time head of the Ranger fan club became an Islander booster big time on their telecasts. So much so that in Greg Prato's oral history of the Islanders, Fischler practically gleefully recalls rubbing it into the Ranger players after the most crushing loss in franchise history, the Game 5 1984 playoff loss to the Islanders. This is the era that has *never* been given any proper treatment in any book about the Rangers (others have written their share of books about the Francis era) but if you want to learn more about the Rangers of 79, or the frustrating Herb Brooks era or get a fresh take at the Cinderella team of 1986, no one's EVER bothered to write about it. Fischler was so busy with the Islanders and Devils that decade it's as if Ranger history ceased to be worth talking about. That we *still* can't get anything about it in a book ostensibly presented as an oral history covering all eight decades of the team just annoys me completely but I suppose that since it's Fischler's book, that shouldn't be surprising. Fischler thinks only the periods where he personally was associated with the team is worth talking about.And I have to also say this. Fischler chooses to end the book by rehashing verbatim a story from his 1999 book "Cracked Ice" about the near-death experience of his son and how Mike Keenan and Mike Richter were kind to him during this time. I am glad that Fischler's son is doing fine, but this story has no place in this book to be recycled when space could have been given to the story of the Rangers that constantly keeps getting short-shrift in every book I see about NY hockey in this era.I hate to diss the book this much because some parts are okay but it isn't what it bills itself to be and is just Fischler putting out something he could do with little effort overall. We need to see a better and more comprehensive telling of Ranger history written that above all starts acknowledging the lost era of Rangers history that for someone like me is *my* generation of Ranger history that made me a Ranger fan for life.