New York Rangers receive visit from 100-year-old superfan
It is not too often that Original Six NHL teams have fans who are older than the franchise, so the New York Rangers were in for a special treat Tuesday when they received a visit from 100-year-old fan Mila Zavodni, who was already 10 years old when the franchise was founded back in 1926.
Zavodni lived in Czechoslovakia back then, and her father used to take her to hockey games in her native country. A lifetime later, Zavodni now lives in White Plains, N.Y., and roots for the Rangers. So when one of Zavodni's neighbors, Tim Khachetoorian, wanted to do something special for Zavodni's centennial birthday, it made sense to honor her life-long passion for hockey.
Via Lohud.com:
"She watches every Rangers game, including all the late night west coast games," Khachetoorian told Lohud.com. "I fall asleep watching, but she catches me up the next day — she's very knowledgeable and breaks down every game.
"That why I was hoping to get her to a practice for her birthday. At 100, you've done everything and seen everything. I thought this would be a good memory for her."
Zavodni made it to practice Tuesday and spoke with Rangers legends Adam Graves and Dave Maloney as well as a pair of the team's current stars, Derek Stepan and Mats Zuccarello.
And while Zavodni had plenty of kind words for the Rangers, she still reminded Graves and Maloney that the team needs to work on its power play and take advantage of more scoring opportunities.
Zavodni is spot-on in regards to the man-advantage. The Rangers rank 26th in the NHL on the power play with a 16.6 percent success rate.
Arielle Aronson writes about the NHL for FOX Sports. You can follow her on Twitter @aharonson28.
