For Rangers, Team Effort in Season Finale Helped Secure Presidents' Trophy

"Class, is there anything wrong with that headline that appeared on Wednesday in the NYT written by their outsourced sports department The Athletic, a group of likely non-Guild writers who put other Guild writers out of work?" 

"Yes, Matthew"

"How many presidents are there? If there's more than one, then the apostrophe is placed correctly. But I'm thinking there's only one president of the NHL and the people who write the headline and the article are ignorant of where the apostrophe should go."

"Matthew, you're right."

"Extra credit Matthew. Who is the president of the NHL?"

"Long-time Queens lawyer Gary Bettman. Used to be a Canadian Clarence Campbell, but no one knows that anymore except me and my granddad."

"You're a smart young man, Matthew."

"Thank you. Gramps has been muttering a lot to himself these days. He's been Tweeting (X'ing) news shows and news people about how they've got it all wrong."

This was the recent exchange in Miss Hagerty's third grade elementary school class yesterday morning as the class was going over current events.

Normally I just cringe a bit and feel slightly superior when I encounter a misplaced apostrophe. The correct placement of an apostrophe is probably the most perplexing rule of all punctuation. The deli that tells us they have Heroes' is but one example of misuse.

I have sympathy. But until the Pooh-Bahs of punctuation change the rules, we're stuck with what is confusing. You don't pronounce an apostrophe, so therefore the placement of it, correct or otherwise, does nothing to how you say something. Trying to get people to get it right writing it is like pissing in the ocean.

If any team other than the New York Rangers were to have won the President's Cup, signifying finishing the regular season with the most points in the standings, I wouldn't have been assaulted with Presidents' Trophy.

But since we're in New York and all the New York nightly news shows show a backdrop of PRESIDENTS' TROPHY when telling us that the Rangers have secured this rather meaningless title. Only the Stanley Cup counts, and it's 30 years now for the Rangers since they last won it.

Matthew is right. Gramps has been Tweeting all the networks, the NYT and The Athletic and The Athletic reporter who wrote the story about the Rangers, Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh), a youthful looking writer who Gramps sarcastically asked, what J-school did he attend. 

Lynn Truss, Benjamin Dreyer, Mary Norris and William Strunk with E.B. White have all written guides on correct punctuation, none of which seem to have reached Mr. Baugh's desk and that of others in the media business.

It's the sheer number of people who are misusing the apostrophe with regard to President's Cup that has got me crazy. How can so many screw it up?

Go to Google on President's Cup and you see it both ways, correct and otherwise. The incorrect  use is the most frequently one found.

Once the playoffs start, winning the President's Trophy will no longer be New York Ranger news. The only Ranger news that any fan wants to read is that after 30 years they win the Stanley Cup. 

If the Vegas Golden Knights can win one after being in the league less than 10 years, the Rangers should be able to do it this year.

We'll see, won't we?

Bibliography:

https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-four-apostrophes-of-apocalypse.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2019/02/verbal-punctuation.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-infernal-apostrophe.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-grammar-lady.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-vote-is-in.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-what.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-disappearing-apostrophe.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2017/07/eats-shoots-and-leaves.html
https://onofframp.blogspot.com/2017/02/presidents-day.html

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