NEW YORK — New York Rangers fan Drew\u00a0Rothman and his kids came out to Madison Square Garden to watch their team play on Saturday, then figured: Why not stay for the New York Sirens game a couple hours later?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what our plans were, and when we knew that [the Sirens] game was coming tonight, I said \u2026 \u2018This could be a great opportunity to support the positive movement in women\u2019s sports,\u2019\u201d Rothman said at the Sirens game.<\/p>\n
Rothman traveled from Philadelphia for the weekend with his two young kids, Langston, 12, and Henley, 7 (and a half).<\/p>\n
With family in the New York area, it was a no-brainer to make the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we came in here, [Langston] goes, \u2018This feels like Game 7 in the playoffs,\u2019\u201d Rothman said of the atmosphere at the Garden. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really special. We\u2019re so happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Langston \u2013 wearing his Rangers jersey \u2013 described the full day of hockey as \u201creally cool,\u201d and Henley echoed the same sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter is locked in, and so is my son,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s awesome. It\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on the main concourse, Chris Knieste, 30, was unwrapping a fresh Sirens jersey, while still rocking his Rangers sweater from earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get this experience, a doubleheader, it\u2019s as good as it gets,\u201d Knieste said.<\/p>\n
Knieste was at the Sirens game with his sister and his four-year-old niece. He said his family has been Rangers fans for \u201cgenerations,\u201d and added that seeing his niece have the opportunity to watch professional women\u2019s hockey is special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see it on my niece\u2019s face, seeing it on TV or seeing women play hockey anywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cWomen\u2019s pro hockey is bigger and better than ever. I mean, having a game at MSG, you see the quotes on the wall, everywhere, how big of a deal this is for this venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to see [my niece] on skates,\u201d he added. \u201cI would love to see her playing hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
For hockey fan Lacey Conine \u2013 who made the trip to New York from California \u2013 nothing was going to stop her from being at MSG for the hockey doubleheader, not even a trip to the emergency room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Please just give me permission to fly,\u2019\u201d Conine said. \u201cAnd [the doctors] said, \u2018Yeah you can fly.\u2019 So, I\u2019m here.<\/p>\n
\u201cMSG is beautiful,\u201d she added. \u201cThe history, just being here, the energy is amazing. I\u2019ve been to hundreds of [NHL] games and it\u2019s certainly just a very specific vibe here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conine, who said she went to her first PWHL game just last weekend in Seattle, got visibly emotional when describing the enormity of having over 18,000 fans fill out Madison Square Garden for the Sirens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s indescribable. \u2026 I\u2019ve been crying,\u201d she said. \u201cEmotional and powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
And \u2013 with the Rangers\u2019 win in the afternoon and the Sirens\u2019 thrilling shootout victory in the night cap \u2013 fans at the Garden got a double dose of New York triumphs. It doesn\u2019t get much better than that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — New York Rangers fan Drew\u00a0Rothman and his kids came out to Madison Square Garden to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-186063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-city-news","12":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}