The Magazine's John "Kruk" Broder surveys the scene in the Rangers' dressing room in the moments after a 4-2 win over Chicago that felt strangely like a defeat.

You should have heard the sigh in the World's Most Famous Arena last night.

With the clock stopped at 1:37 remaining in the first period, goalie Mike Richter lay face-down on the Madison Square Garden ice, slamming his blocker in what must have been incredible pain. We waited into the second period to find out more from a press release: Richter sustained a sprained right knee; he would undergo tests at a local hospital. Was that all it was? We had to wait again.

Fast-forward to the Rangers' locker room after the game. While the media spoke with Brian Leetch and Theo Fleury about what the loss of Richter would mean to the team, Rangers PR man John Rosasco sent the Garden into a tailspin: "Mike's got a completely torn ACL, he will be operated on in two to three weeks when the swelling goes down. He should have the same recovery time as last year."

Almost on cue, Mark Messier entered the room. Apparently, no one had told him anything. Some reporter breaks the news to the captain, and Messier will only say, "No one has told me that". The reporter pressed: "JR just told the media." Messier shot back: "Well I haven't been told that."

Messier was the first person on the scene when Richter went down. "Mike was in tears," he said. "He knew something was wrong. I mean he was completely broken up."

I walked outside the dressing room to find Adam Graves with tears in his eyes, saying how important Richter was to the team. A few minutes later, GM Glen Sather punctuated that point. "Well," he said, "we're now in the market for a goalie." Kind of ironic. For the last several weeks, we have been hearing Richter's name mentioned in numerous trade rumors. Scratch that.

As Sather spoke, Mike came down the hall on crutches. He was led into the Rangers locker room, where former Rangers Rod Gilbert and John Davidson were the first to speak with him. After a couple of minutes, the doors were opened and there he was -- sitting in a suit with his right leg stretched out in front of lockers No. 11 and 9.

Richter tried to hide his frustration as he answered questions. Finally, graciously, he stopped the interview. "Now I'm going home and I'm going to beat up my cat."

The Rangers are only six points out of the last playoff spot in the East, but you have to figure their ninth life ended with that Garden-sized sigh.

John "Kruk" Broder is a researcher at ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at john.broder@espnmag.com.