"Slapshot" is a 1995 song written by

Ray Castoldi Ray Castoldi has been the stadium organist at Madison Square Garden since 1989. During the summer, when the New York Rangers and New York Knicks are spending their offseasons, Castoldi was heard at the organ at New York Mets games at Citi Field un ...

, the music director and organist for

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

. The song was written as a

goal song In sports, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a Scoring in association football, goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve their teammates, the manager or coaching staff or the ...

for the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

and was debuted on January 20, 1995, in Madison Square Garden. The Ontario Hockey League's

Kitchener Rangers The Kitchener Rangers are a major junior ice hockey team based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League. The Rangers have won the J. Ross Robertson Cup as OHL ...

also use the horn, along with the same or similar horn. The recording of the song that is used by the Rangers at their home games was created by local rock band Bad Apple.

Composition and recording

During the

1994–95 NHL lockout The 1994–95 NHL lockout was a lockout that came after a year of National Hockey League (NHL) hockey that was played without a collective bargaining agreement. The lockout was a subject of dispute as the players sought collective bargaining and ...

, the New York Rangers sought to create a goal song that was unique to the Rangers and would not receive radio airtime. This followed the victory of the New York Rangers in the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and

, the music director and organist for

, found inspiration to write a song that would become what he later described as a "signature song" for the Rangers, by whom he was commissioned. The original lyrics of the song, written by Castoldi, contained several instances of the word "goal", with Castoldi intending the song to inspire fans to chant "goal" following Rangers' goals. However, during a recording session with local rock band Bad Apple, the lyrics were modified to substitute the word "woah" for each instance of "goal" in the song's chorus for reasons of

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

. The recording was first publicly played on January 20, 1995, at a New York Rangers game in Madison Square Garden.

Use by the New York Rangers

As the

for the New York Rangers, a portion of "Slapshot" typically thirty-five to forty seconds in length plays following the goal horn every time Rangers score a goal at home. Fans sing along to the song, whose lyrics begin with a loudly chanted "Woah" and later include a pattern of voiced "Hey!"s.

Reception

Of goal songs used in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, "Slapshot" is widely considered to be among the best. The song, while it initially did not impress the fanbase of the New York Rangers, has since become a song near and dear to Rangers fans. The popularity of the song has been so great that it has inspired other NHL teams to commission similar goal songs. Writing for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', Dave Caldwell noted that the Rangers have not won a

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

since they unveiled "Slapshot" in 1995, calling it "the curse of the Rangers' goal song".

Use by the Kitchener Rangers

Both teams use the same horn. However, Kitchener uses an air raid siren after the horn silences. Also, the song starts at the instrumental, then transitions into the "Hey!"s as opposed to the New York Rangers, who transition into the "Woah"s. Lastly, fans of the junior hockey team chant "Let's go Ran-gers!" in between the "Woahs."

References

{{New York Rangers, state=collapsed New York Rangers Madison Square Garden Sports 1995 songs American rock songs Music of New York City