When the visiting locker room was ready, the New York Rangers’ teenage stick boy would hop on the ice at Madison Square Garden with a bag of pucks.

Brian Mullen would have The Garden to himself for about an hour before Rangers home games. A decade before he donned the blue, red, and white of his hometown team, he shared the same rink as his idols at the time — the “Ooh la la” team, he recalled, as several players were in the famous Sasson jeans commercial that regularly aired in the New York area.

“As a stick boy, it was incredible,” Mullen told amNewYork. “It was like a dream come true. It was like I was playing for the Rangers.”

Mullen grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. From his 49th Street apartment, he could see the now-demolished Madison Square Garden III, where the Rangers played from 192

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