Stan Fischler attended his first hockey game in 1939, and he attended his most recent one on Thursday night.
Much has changed in hockey and in the wider world over those eight decades, but one thing has not. He loves hockey, and people, and hockey people most of all.
The man turned 86 on Saturday, but his level of energy and enthusiasm as he worked his last game as a regular on MSG Networks seemed undiminished.
“Somebody wrote this a while ago, and I saved it,” Fischler said before the Islanders hosted the Rangers at Barclays Center.