[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 11 (Monday, March 20, 1995)]
[Pages 438-439]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Honoring the 1994 National Hockey League Champion New York 
Rangers

March 17, 1995

    Good afternoon. Please be seated.
    I'm delighted to see all of you here, and welcome to the White House 
and to the Rose Garden. You come on the first day that the trees are 
blooming, so you're bringing us all wonderful weather.
    It's an honor for me to host the New York Rangers here, including 
the Commissioner of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, the 
President and General Man- 

[[Page 439]]

ager of the Rangers, Neil Smith, Coach Colin Campbell and Assistant 
Coach Dick Todd. And I think Congressman Eliot Engel was supposed to be 
here, and he is unless they're still voting.
    It was last June 14th when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, finally 
breaking the infamous curse. The next day I got a letter from Senator 
Moynihan, a big Ranger fan, who said that since the Rangers brought the 
Cup back to Madison Square Garden, I should bring the Rangers to the 
Rose Garden. I'm delighted you're finally here. We've been trying to 
arrange this visit for some time, but what's a few months compared to 54 
years. [Laughter]
    I can't tell you how much I personally enjoyed the playoffs. I 
really got into them. I tried to rearrange my schedule so that I could 
see the games. I enjoyed seeing Mark Messier predicting and delivering a 
victory when your backs were against the wall. I enjoyed Brian Leetch's 
MVP playoff performance, the first by an American-born player. And I 
especially enjoyed your goalie, Mike Richter's, acrobatic saves. All of 
us here in Washington can appreciate what goalies do because we have so 
many shots taken at us every day. [Laughter] And I was hoping, maybe in 
addition to a jersey, one of you could loan me a face mask for the next 
year or so. [Laughter]
    I also want to say something that I observed watching these 
playoffs. Stars alone don't win championships; teams do. I remember your 
chant from last year, ``Heave ho. Everybody pulling together.'' This 
year it's turned into ``Heave ho. Two in a row.''
    The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy competition by professional 
athletes in North America, the only trophy that bears the names of not 
only the teams but the individual players who won it.
    I'd also like to say a special word of appreciation because the 
Rangers boast the first four Russians ever to have their names engraved 
on the Stanley Cup, another sign of our increasingly interconnected 
global community and America's outreach to the rest of the world.
    I also admire the tradition that the entire team shares the Stanley 
Cup. Each player gets to take it home to friends and to family. This 
team took that one step further, because the Rangers know that teamwork 
isn't only about the guys who lace up the skates, it's also about your 
fans, too. And if ever a team had great fans, you do. So you paid your 
fans back by remembering right after the victory a longtime fan who had 
passed away, by bringing the cup to sick children in the hospital and 
even by bringing the cup to restaurants and bars throughout New York--
[laughter]--as well as to one of the Vice President's favorite hangouts, 
the David Letterman show.
    For all that, I thank you. Your victory has shown us what is best 
about professional sports, perseverance, hard work, real commitment to 
working together. It's an example for which all of us in Madison Square 
Garden and the Rose Garden are very grateful.
    Congratulations, and welcome again.

Note: The President spoke at 2:39 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House.