from Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post,

There was an old joke that said if you wanted to count the number of hockey fans in any given city, count the number of seats in that city’s arena and they would match up perfectly. That was always an exaggeration, but it was a point of pride for many hockey fans: Theirs was a modest devotion but a fierce one. Win or lose, thick or thin, first place or last.

Well, Rangers fans awakened this morning to an odd, wonderful reality: Hockey owns New York City for now, and for the next few weeks, and the Rangers are our benign despots. Actually, they probably expected this; it probably didn’t take until 10:41 Thursday night before the most strident loyalists shook their head at what by that point was already a rapidly filling bandwagon.

But here’s the thing:

There’s nothing wrong with a bandwagon. There’s never anything wrong with a bandwagon. Bandwagons don’t form in vacuums, and they aren’t constructed in honor of losing — or even modestly successful — teams. They are built in times of triumph, with the vapor of victory strong and addictive.

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