New York Rangers: Thank you, Dan Girardi

There was some notable news to hit the NHL today as former New York Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi announced his retirement from hockey.

After a lengthy career that spanned 13 years, including 11 in a New York Rangers jersey, 927 career NHL games, 264 points, 143 postseason contests and a staggering 1,954 blocked shots, Girardi has decided to call it a day.

Andrew Steele-Davis, one of our site contributors here, fell for the Rangers in 2008 and Dan Girardi was the driving force behind that love affair. Here is Andrew’s farewell letter to a true Blueshirts great…

Dear Dan Girardi,

I write this letter sad that it’s over but with a sense of pride that I got to witness one of the most underrated success stories in the NHL.

You were a true warrior from the very beginning, shaking off the disappointment of going undrafted to grinding away and showing the unrelenting determination that defined your career to make it in the big leagues.

A true underdog, you quickly established yourself as mainstay on the Rangers blueline and displayed the heart of a lion night in, night out on every single shift.

You showed no hesitation when it came to putting your body on the line for the good of the team, and you’ve certainly got the many battle scars to prove you were the first to go to war.

Numerous injuries, including a cracked kneecap, a concussion and deep wounds that would sideline so many others, never threw you off course and you continued to put the team first no matter how much pain you carried.

Who else would shrug off a cracked, mangled kneecap like it was a mere scrape? And fewer would be eager to return after just five games out in order to endure more pain and suffering.

You were a true warrior.

A model professional, you took pride in your role and even more pride in the jersey you wore on your back.

Determined to do your part for the team that took a chance on you, you gave the ultimate sacrifice by flinging your body in-front of that deadly frozen lump of rubber 1,954 times.

And that was just the regular season.

You didn’t care about the pounding your body took and you instead asked for more punishment, laying on well over 1,500 hits and you still managed not to miss a game in five seasons.

You were a true warrior.

Built for the big moments? That was you, and one winning goal in a Game 7, four Eastern Conference Finals appearances and one Stanley Cup Final outing says it all. 

The only disappointment is that you never lifted the greatest prize in all of sports and that would have been the crowning moment for a career built on sacrifice.

Forget the on ice heroics for just a moment, though. You were also a true champion off the ice, an avid supporter of Autism and you were a huge presence in the community.

You were the locker room leader the New York Rangers both needed and deserved, and you gladly took on that same role for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the twilight of your career.

Although you won’t go down as the most talented defenseman in the rich tapestry of NHL history, you will certainly be remembered for your grit, your tenacity, your determination and your burning desire to do whatever it took for the good of the team.

And, even when your body began to betray you towards the end and things that once came natural were more of a slog, you never shirked responsibility and you never offered excuses. 

You kept on battling away and no player in a Tampa Bay Lightning uniform had more blocked shots than the 263 you racked up in just two seasons with the franchise. That stat alone epitomises who you were as a player.

You were a true warrior.

As a hockey fanatic growing up in England, I was searching for a hero I could pin my support to, someone I could identify with among the overwhelming sense of loneliness I felt rooting for a sport that carried little significance in my homeland. 

You were that beacon of hope for me and one of the main reasons my love for this great sport and this storied franchise in the New York Rangers runs so deep.

You introduced me to what I have come to love about hockey and you, along with Brian Boyle, were the players that cemented my obsession with this team.

Thank you.

And thank you for being one of us, thank you for being prepared to give it everything you’ve got even if it may have cost you some of your prime years in the end.

Thank you for supplying us with endless amount of memories and defining what a true warrior on the ice should look like.

And thank you, finally, for allowing this boy to love a sport he wasn’t meant to and grow the passion that now fuels his unrelenting mission to make covering hockey his job.

So, when all is said and done, and the farewells are spoken, go gentle into the night Dan Girardi and finally rest that weary body of yours.

You are a true warrior and will always be a member of the New York Rangers family.

Yours Kindly, 

Andrew. 

You can now read a full breakdown of Dan Girardi’s remarkable career with both the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning right here.