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| Scott GOMEZ (GOH-mehz, SKAWT) |
New York Rangers |
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AN Ex IN THE CITY
BRIDGET WENTWORTH, STAR-LEDGER STAFF – October 25, 2007
Scott Gomez's practice-day routine used to go something like this: Wake up, get in the car and head to the Dunkin' Donuts across the street from Codey Arena in West Orange. Grab his morning pick-me-up and head over to the rink.
Practice, get back in the car, and go to lunch somewhere with a few Devils teammates.
Head home. Sit around. Have dinner – sometimes in, sometimes out.
But life is significantly different for Gomez since he signed a seven-year, $51.5 million deal with the Rangers this past summer.
Not necessarily better. Just different. Gomez, who will face his former team for the first time this season tonight, is careful to make that distinction.
These days, as the 27-year-old center heads down the Henry Hudson Parkway toward Manhattan after practice, back to his temporary Upper West Side digs, he is almost paralyzed by the options.
Should he walk over to Barnes & Noble and peruse the new biographies? He's into the rock 'n' roll category right now, having just finished "Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones." After he's done with "Clapton: The Autobiography," he'll need something else to read.
Maybe he should take a walk over to Central Park with one of his books, and a couple newspapers. That's always an option, and the people-watching can't be beat.
If he's not interested in jumping in a cab to head to Bette or Del Frisco's, two restaurants he frequents, he can always walk to a local pub and try to catch a football game on the big-screen TVs.
Or he can stroll a couple blocks and have a quiet night at the movies.
"Not taking anything away from Jersey, but in Jersey, it's the same (routine)," Gomez says. "This is unique, every day, not knowing what to do. As much as I used to come into the city, it's still very new."
And it's what Gomez has always wanted, going back to when he was a little boy and he'd hear his father talk about New York and Madison Square Garden as if they were known only in myths.
"I'm from Alaska, so I've got the backyard and the mountains and all that," Gomez says. "Since I was a kid, I've always wondered what it was like to live in a city."
Not so much that it was ever a distraction while he played for the Devils, with those bright lights just miles away.
But after seven seasons with the Devils, during which he won two Stanley Cups, Gomez wanted a change, and made the jump to the place that had always called to him by signing with the Rangers on the first day of free agency in July.
Others have made the Devils-to-Rangers transition before Gomez, but unlike those predecessors, he is younger than they were at the time of the move, he is single, and he's chosen to live in the city rather than remain in New Jersey.
It's a step some might view as akin to letting a tiger loose in the zoo, especially for a gregarious people person like Gomez.
But Bobby Holik, the current Atlanta Thrashers captain who left the Devils and signed with the Rangers in 2002 – and is as responsible a player as the NHL will ever see – talks to Gomez regularly and wholly supported the signing.
"I sold him on the Rangers in a big way. I loved it there," Holik says. "You have to stay focused, (and) I wouldn't recommend it to him if I thought he couldn't handle it."
Devils forward Brian Gionta has been friends with Gomez since they were 15, and the two have talked a couple times since the season started. Gionta scoffs at the idea Gomez would have trouble balancing a city social life with his obligations to the team.
"It's no secret he likes that kind of thing, the fast pace," Gionta says. "As much as he enjoys his lifestyle, he comes ready to play. He takes hockey seriously."
More seriously than observers might think at first guess. Gomez laughs easily, at himself and others, even when a sterner approach seems more appropriate. That belies a dedication to the sport that put him in the position to take Manhattan.
"I'm here for hockey," he says. "That's where the respect for the game and the guys on the team comes in. I know my limitation. I can't go out every night. I wish I could, but I can't. You know when you can have fun, and when you can't.
"Is there temptation? Yeah. But I know my obligation."
It hasn't been an easy start for Gomez or the Rangers. Through eight games, he's managed two goals and one assist – he averaged more than 64 points in seven seasons with the Devils – and has struggled to click with a variety of linemates as the team, struggling for offense, has sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Division with a 2-5-1 record.But Gomez isn't worried. The chances are there, and so is his talent. He doesn't let doubt creep into his mind.
He'd rather worry about the renovation of the apartment he recently bought in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, within easy walking distance of the Garden.
This represents a big-time, grown-up move for him. No more hand-me-down furniture. No more embarrassing small-screen TV, the bane of every guest who ever tried to watch a playoff game at Gomez's West Orange townhouse.
"I promised my friends – if I go into the city, I'll do it right," Gomez says. "I promised."
And he's not just talking about the renovation.
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