Captain Callahan: The identity of the Rangers

Here’s a column I wrote for The Journal News and LoHud.com yesterday: **************************** The last time the Rangers played a hockey game with somebody other than Ryan Callahan as their captain, Callahan was on crutches. He was on crutches because, in the biggest game of 2010-11, Game 80 of 82, with the Rangers barely clinging to a playoff spot, they came back from 3-0 down to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins, scoring three times in the final 3:48 to take a one-goal lead, when Boston captain Zdeno Chara wound up for a shot. Chara, one of the biggest, meanest players in all of hockey, with the biggest, scariest shot, fired. And Callahan slid in front of the puck, fearlessly. He blocked the shot, broke his ankle, played the rest of the shift, and limped around for the signature, post-victory stick salute on one of the loudest nights of the season. “I knew it wasn’t going to feel good if it hit me,” Callahan said before playing...