Showing that the Rangers' wit is about as razor-sharp as their 10th-place hockey team, that fan marriage proposal gone horribly wrong on Sunday at the Garden turned out Monday to be a wisecrack gone dismally right.
When a woman sitting at the Seventh Ave. end during Sunday's Rangers-Lightning walked out of the arena on a man who ostensibly had asked her to marry him on the Gardenvision screen, it looked like a brutal turn in a relationship played out in agonizing public view.
In fact, a source said Monday, it was an inside joke cooked up by game-presentation staff and carried out by paid actors who are, in real life, engaged.
The 18,198 in the Garden, and at least one newspaper beat writer? Those were the patsies.
The Valentine's Day hoax went off during the second period of the Rangers' 5-2 win over Tampa Bay, when the scoreboard showed the jersey-wearing actors beside a graphic saying that "Nick" was asking "Melissa" to be his "Blueshirt Bride" - after which a stunned-looking "Melissa" shook her head and left while an even more stunned buzz swept through the Garden crowd.
"I didn't know if it was staged or not," said center Erik Christensen, who scored twice in quick succession with the crowd still stirring over the rejection.
The less-than-legendary stunt has been tried before, several times during NBA games.
When a woman sitting at the Seventh Ave. end during Sunday's Rangers-Lightning walked out of the arena on a man who ostensibly had asked her to marry him on the Gardenvision screen, it looked like a brutal turn in a relationship played out in agonizing public view.
In fact, a source said Monday, it was an inside joke cooked up by game-presentation staff and carried out by paid actors who are, in real life, engaged.
The 18,198 in the Garden, and at least one newspaper beat writer? Those were the patsies.
The Valentine's Day hoax went off during the second period of the Rangers' 5-2 win over Tampa Bay, when the scoreboard showed the jersey-wearing actors beside a graphic saying that "Nick" was asking "Melissa" to be his "Blueshirt Bride" - after which a stunned-looking "Melissa" shook her head and left while an even more stunned buzz swept through the Garden crowd.
"I didn't know if it was staged or not," said center Erik Christensen, who scored twice in quick succession with the crowd still stirring over the rejection.
The less-than-legendary stunt has been tried before, several times during NBA games.
