Phil Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Link: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodka Drunkenski Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Speaking of greatest Rangers, he was up there. RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphinity 2.0 Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 RIP Rod Gilbert. Met him on a few occasions as a kid and he was always so kind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugg Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Nice man and a great player. Always had time for fans. RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlairBettsBlocksEverything Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 A slide show that we played at my moms funeral was a picture she took with Rod. In that picture Rod was grabbing her ass lol RIP Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albatrosss Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Wow. Rip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Al Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 As a 59 year old whose first game at the garden was 1971 he was our Tom Seaver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Met Rod at the MSG holiday party a few times when I worked there. Thankfully for him the Rangers provided him a safe space where he couldn't be canceled. He could not escape prison in 2021. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cash or Czech Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 My dad has some really good memories with Gilbert, including some golf tournament stuff and always said how nice of a guy he was. RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYR2711 Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 So sad to hear. Met him a couple of times at MSG and he was always so nice to everyone. My wife ran into him in an elevator at MSG, she was taking my son up to our seats and he had a cast on because he had broken his leg. Rod was so nice to him and was asking about him. RIP Mr Ranger!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siddious Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 I think every fan has met him at least once he was at every rangers event ever. Nice guy I have a pic with him somewhere from one of the 3 or 4 times I met him. RIP. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodrigueGabriel Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 As my alias here might indicate, he was my guy growing up. He was so smooth with a great shot. Had a big slapshot when it was the rage, but also had a quick-release wrister that was deadly around the net. I looked for every article about him and cut out every picture. Studied perhaps the most deadly boring autobiography in sports history. ("GOAL! My Life On Ice.") I was at his tribute night. It all ended pretty sadly for him, a legend forced out by John Ferguson, who nobody ever trusted because he was such a dick with Montreal and was only be a passing blip in Rangers history. I must have watched Gilbert score at least 50 goals in person over the years. My mother liked Ratelle. Gilbert was a playboy. She liked him better after he married Judy. I only met him once and it was a little surreal. I have played a lot of softball in my years in DC, and I was at a game at West Potomac Park and my fiance and my future step-kids were there. Maybe '96. I'm off the field and not likely to hit in that half and I'm looking around. There were two people maybe 150 yards away who were just looking strangely lost. It was still the early days of cell phones and they were clearly trying to call someone. And the more I looked at them, the more they seemed oddly familiar. So I started walking toward them to see if everything was OK, and as I got closer and closer it became clear that it was Rod and Judy and that I was about to meet my boyhood idol. They were trying to get a taxi to Georgetown in a really awkward place to do that. Bryan Watson (ex-Pens tough guy) had a bar there that they were headed to. They thanked me for checking in and invited my wife and I to join them. That wasn't going to happen that night (no baby-sitter) and the side was out so I had to hustle back. But they were so sweet and nice. I have imagined how fun it would have been to have a few beers with them. This is a tough year for idols. Lost the musical equivalent in Jerry Jeff Walker in December. Hard to watch your heroes get old and die. Sad night for me. Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsley Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 RIP Mr. Ranger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 One of my very first memories of any Rangers player. May he rest in peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoMinutesForNothing Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 RIP. The worst part is he'll never get to know what happens with Jack Eichel, but that will be said of all of us eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keirik Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Rest In Peace. He always was such a nice guy, always available, and always approachable. Met him several times. Great career and better person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sod16 Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Combo of wheels and hands, like Pavel Bure, for those of you who started watching later. In an era when some Rangers went South in the playoffs, he was always on, going right back to his breakthrough in the 1962 series against Toronto. I didn't see him score 50 in person, but I saw a lot, including a 4 goal game. I do recall seeing an archetypal #7 goal, roaring down that right wing and unleashing the big slap shot, in 1969. The kind of goal you never see anymore. And, almost more importantly, he always made time to chat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 I'm sure it's a hard day for all of the older fans on here. Even though I never saw him play or met him, his death made me really sad. He was such a homer, and I loved it. He was always so positive about the Rangers and his personality really came through the television. I wish I could have seen those late 60's-early 70's teams in action because so those are some of the best teams they've ever had, and perhaps some of the best teams to ever play, especially that early 70's group. All of those Rangers' functions won't be the same without him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodrigueGabriel Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Oddly, I went to a memorial service yesterday for a friend who died way early due to a bad reaction to what should have been a routine medical procedure. (Which may also account for my being a little extra morose about this.) His memorial had to wait 17 months due to COVID. Mike was a middle school teacher of all things - having left a more glamorous job on Capitol Hill only to voluntarily spend his days with the godawful excuses for humans that reside in the 10-13 age range. But Mike was a guy who realized every day that the gifts of family and friends that he had been given were more bountiful than anything that could befall him. And he was compelled share that bounty with others every day without expectation of a return. Rod kind of seemed the same way. He was just a kid from Montreal who was given talent and opportunity and for that he got to be everybody in NYC's best buddy for life. And he appeared to relish that role and be the perfect guy for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 Oddly, I went to a memorial service yesterday for a friend who died way early due to a bad reaction to what should have been a routine medical procedure. (Which may also account for being a little morose about this.) His memorial had to wait 17 months due to COVID. Mike was a middle school teacher of all things - having left a more glamorous job on Capitol Hill only to voluntarily spend his days with the godawful excuses for humans that reside in the 10-13 age range. But Mike was a guy who realized every day that the gifts of family and friends that he had been given were more bountiful than anything that could befall him. And he was compelled share that bounty with others every day without expectation of a return. Rod kind of seemed the same way. He was just a kid from Montreal who was given talent and opportunity and for that he got to be everybody in NYC's best buddy for life. And he appeared to relish that role and be the perfect guy for it. Seeing your profile picture, I was on Reddit last night and someone posted a picture showing ownership of that very same card. I could tell it was him, but I did not know that it was actually his rookie card from 1961! Good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangersIn7 Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 He was before my time but I did meet him once about 15+ years ago. Going to sound cliche, but what I took away from having met him was how exceedingly kind and gracious he was. Really a great guy. Loved the fans. Always had time for them. It’s a shame he’s gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpshooter Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 I'm at least glad he was still alive when the Rangers finally retired Ratelle's number. That should have happened years ago, so it was good that the other two members of that famed line were still with us for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodrigueGabriel Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 I'm at least glad he was still alive when the Rangers finally retired Ratelle's number. That should have happened years ago, so it was good that the other two members of that famed line were still with us for it. I'm not sure that everybody remembers that Gilbert and Ratelle were boyhood buddies in Montreal. They played through juniors together in Guelph and showed up in NY with their on-ice chemistry fully developed - so fluid and long since having become second nature. They just needed a LW to dig the puck out of the corners and protect them and Hadfield was the perfect guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodka Drunkenski Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 He was such a cool dude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LONG LONG LONG TIME FAN Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 A true gentleman and a great HOFER. Top notch player and a great rep for the game of hockey. Sad day to say the least. https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/22/sport/rod-gilbert-mr-ranger-dead-spt/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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