What Ever Happened To The Rangers Offseason? It Disappeared

There used to be such a thing as the Rangers "Offseason," but not any more and I'll tell you how I know. 

Every single day in this almost-over month of July there's been another Rangers story. One guy is guessing at Mike Sullivan's lines and another is reporting about Brett Berard's early-season injury that never healed.

Some "insiders," like The Great Omniscient Friedman, will come up with something -- anything –  and one of Matt Rempe's many media-watchers will 'hear" that The Remper is practicing to do better at whatever he didn't do better last summer.

It doesn't matter what Rempe does; if he sneezes hard enough, it'll make a Post headline.

Not that there's anything wrong with all that 'cause we love hockey stories; except that even in July and August we occasionally feel that enough is enough. (And then the feeling goes away.)

Now I'll tell you how things have changed over 75 years of hockey journalism.

In the summer of 1950, The Maven was playing drums in a Catskill Mountain dance band. Before leaving Brooklyn my two-month gig,  I instructed my Dad to mail me any hockey story that appeared in the New York papers even if it wasn't Rangers.

Day after Day, nothing came and then one afternoon – at mail call – there was something from Ben Fischler, alias my Dad. I could tell by the bulging envelope that there was a large clipping inside. Sure enough, there was.

The big NHL story was about a nine-player NHL deal involving the Red Wings and Black Hawks. It was a huge exchange and, obviously,  an enormous story.

I never got another hockey clipping in the mail for the rest of the summer; nor did I expect any. June, July and August was our "Off-Season," a time to rest the lungs and mull some Rangers lineups in our heads.

Hard it may be to imagine nowadays, back in those bygone summers, we'd mostly forget hockey until the right time – the REAL SEASON.

Or, until Dad mailed me that big fat envelope with a summertime treasure; an actual hockey story!