Somewhere in between addressing Madison Square Garden’s controversial use of facial recognition software, which has somehow spiraled into a threat to ban booze at the facility, Rangers owner James Dolan offered some high praise for his hockey team.
“The Rangers are really cooking,” he said on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York” on Thursday while sporting a scarf with the Rangers logo on it. “They’ve got a shot this year to win the whole thing.”
Dolan, who clarified in the Fox 5 interview that he doesn’t think the Rangers are a lock for the Stanley Cup, maintained his bullish stance on the Blueshirts — especially compared with the Knicks — in another appearance, on WFAN’s “Carton & Roberts” show on Friday.
“In my dreams [the Knicks and Rangers would win a title] it’s the same year,” Dolan told WFAN when asked which team he would prefer win a title first. “You’re not asking me this but I’ll say it — I love my basketball team and they’re getting better I believe every season, but I think the Rangers are more ready to win it.”
The 67-year-old owner also shared a story about a time when his son was nagging him about the Rangers acquiring a big-name NHL player, whom Dolan didn’t name.
“With the Rangers my 17-year-old was like, we really gotta get this guy,” he said. “He was killing me with it. I’ll tell you what. I’m done. I got Chris Drury on the phone and I said, ‘Chris, would you please do me a favor and please talk to this kid?’ He calmed down.”
Dolan’s comments on the Rangers’ Stanley Cup chances resembled those he made after crashing a January 2012 press conference, when he expressed how proud he was of the organization and then-general manager Glen Sather following a shutout victory over the Predators that had lifted the team to an NHL-best 29-11-4. He told a story of how he gave Sather an item, which The Post’s Larry Brooks later reported was a sobriety chip, and said not to give it back to him until the Rangers won the Stanley Cup.
“And I think I’m getting pretty close to getting that thing back,” Dolan said.
Former head coach John Tortorella, who is now with Flyers, didn’t exactly appreciate the endorsement.
“We’ve got to go about our business,” Tortorella said after Dolan relinquished the floor. “I’ve got an owner up here talking about a Stanley Cup. That’s a bunch of bulls–t.
“We’ve got to take it one day at a time.”
The Garden and the Rangers hosted their seventh annual Pride Night on Friday, but contrary to what they initially advertised, the team did not wear special warm-up jerseys or utilize pride-themed tape.
One player told The Post that he just saw the regular Lady Liberty jersey hanging in his locker and he did not know why the Rangers did not wear the originally planned warm-ups, which they have worn in the past “in solidarity with those who continue to advocate for inclusivity.”
The seemingly reversed decision came in wake of Philadelphia defenseman Ivan Provorov’s refusal to wear Pride-themed apparel on the Flyers’ Pride Night on Jan. 19. The Russian cited his religious beliefs as his reasoning.
The Rangers deployed the same lines on Friday with which they finished their overtime loss Wednesday night against Toronto, meaning Jimmy Vesey was with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, while Chris Kreider skated with Vincent Trocheck and Barclay Goodrow.
