John Amirante to sing national anthem before Rangers’ Game 4
John Amirante sings the national anthem before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, April 18, 2015. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Rangers are one home victory from putting serious pressure on the Senators in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and they plan to kick off that effort Thursday with a traditional flourish.
John Amirante is scheduled to sing the national anthem before Game 4 at Madison Square Garden, his first time doing the honors this postseason.
It is not as if the Rangers specifically are deploying him because of the situation; he was scheduled for the second home game of the second round regardless of circumstances. But his appearances do tend to fire up nostalgic fans.
Amirante first sang the anthem for the Rangers on Nov. 2, 1980, a 6-3 loss to the Kings before any of the current players were born.
After initially being told in 2015 that he no longer would sing for the Rangers after that postseason, Amirante has been invited to return on an occasional basis.
He sang before Game 4 of last year’s first round against the Penguins, a 5-0 loss that turned out to be the Rangers’ final home game of the season.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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