Olympic disconnect?
Olympic levity reigned Thursday in the Rangers’ locker room, with traditional displays of patriotism from Jaromir Jagr and the Czechs supplemented by a career day by little Loki Darius Kasparaitis.
A few sentences into a statement about getting the start tonight in front of a hometown Toronto crowd, Kevin Weekes looked toward the door near the training room and cracked up. There, peeking around the corner, was a 2′ x 3′ portrait of himself, shirtless with a steely Zoolander gaze. It danced back and forth in the doorway, then the holder revealed himself as Darius.
After a few minutes of prancing around the dressing room with the portrait in front of him, peppered with comments of how handsome he was, Kaspar put the likeness in Weekes’ locker. A genuine laugh riot. But it wasn’t done.
Dominic Moore was off to the side, doing a television interview, which was probably already disrupted. But that didn’t stop Kaspar from again securing the portrait and doing the same little dance behind the camera while Dom looked over his shoulder with a mix of annoyance and suppressed amusement.
So what? Well, after tonight these guys leave their first-place perch temporarily and go their separate ways. And Ranger fans, not having tasted cohesion like this, being so unused to a smooth-running team unit that can score and win, have got to be concerned if they can pick up where they left off.