Now we get people from New York City, California, Colorado. It's a fun party. In the past, some people thought New Orleans was too big a deal and they didn't want to go through that. We also have a range of different events. Our Mardi Gras has evolved into a lot of very different experiences.

Evangelicalism in the New York region has been transformed dramatically in the past 25 years by the full-blown ethnic transformation of the churches.

It was the common thought that New York was doomed.

I also thought I'd get a call [when former teammate Bryan Trottier was hired as New York Rangers coach in 2002]. The reason was, I remember having umpteen conversations with Bryan, having roomed with him for 10 years, that went, 'One of these days, Mike, we're going to take a team and do it our way.' I've found out since from Bryan [who was fired in his first season] that he wasn't going to be given that chance.

I thought he looked familiar, you know. So, he hears me saying how I enlisted in New York in 1938.

The lesson from that is don't let political people decide to make the rebuilding their legacy, as [New York Gov. George] Pataki did. It isn't anyone's legacy. And beware when it gets taken over by real estate.