Rangers vs. Panthers, New York vs. South Florida: Why hate when we can heart?

New York, we love you. 

We are not like every other place on the Eastern Seaboard where the Rangers play. As you are in town to watch your Blueshirts in the Stanley Cup playoffs against our Florida Panthers, we want you to know how we feel. We don’t hate New York — we heart New York. 

After all, in many ways we are New York. Or we were New York. 

For years, South Florida has been called the city’s sixth borough, and we Big Apple expats always loved that. With population shifts of the last few years, we’re now calling ourselves the third borough. You’re OK with that, right? (Did Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island ever really matter?) 

I mean, all your favorite New Yawk-y guys have a house here: Howard Stern, Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Sylvester Stallone, Derek Jeter. Oh, and a certain former president.

We admit that it’s easier to love the city after you’ve left it. Further, we admit that you guys, who have stayed, are the true New Yorkers. We quit. We feel a little bad about that. And then, just like that, it’s December and we’re shoveling ice into a blender instead of snow into a pile … and we’re good.

But we feel like the Rangers-Panthers playoffs that bring you to South Florida — for games on Sunday and Tuesday, then maybe on June 1 — are an opportunity for us to reconnect. 

How can we make you feel at home during your stay? We have some ideas. But, please, if there is something you’d like, or you see a way for us to do something better, please honk or wave a finger to let us know. 

First, an apology: So, look, you’re going to see an unusual number of models in bikinis as we head into next week, especially if you are back for Game 6 on Saturday, as Miami Swim Week overflows with runway shows and after-parties. We just want to be clear that we didn’t set this up to make you feel bad or, heavens, try to entice you to move down. Last weekend, the Hard Rock in Hollywood was overrun with models for the unveiling of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. It’s just how life is here. 

Second, some solace: Game 6 on Saturday, if necessary, would coincide with the first day of the 2024 hurricane season in South Florida, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday predicted will be, to use the scientific term, “insane.” However, the effects of global weather trends no longer worry the people of Florida, as the governor just deleted the phrase “climate (insert word for loose pennies, nickels and dimes in your pocket)” from our state-sanctioned lexicon. You’ll be fine.  

The new colossus: We love flying into New York and listening to passengers ooh and aah as the skyline and popular landmarks come into view. We invite you to enjoy a similar experience as you glide into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where your approach may take you tantalizingly close to The Guitar Hotel at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood. It’s our Statue of Liberty, but with craps, roulette and a sportsbook. Look out for the cocktail napkins that say: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to drink free … ” 

Our new colossus: Little-known fact about Broward County, where the Panthers play, is that it is home to the most popular athlete in the world (not Aaron Judge). Global soccer icon Lionel Messi has a home here as he plays for Inter Miami CF in Fort Lauderdale. He’s been spotted doing regular-guy things, like shopping for groceries in Sea Ranch Lakes and watching his son play soccer in Weston. Inter Miami plays in Vancouver this weekend, but Messi somewhat famously is not making the trip. So keep an eye out. Meanwhile, down in Miami, for now, they have to settle for a simulation: “The Messi Experience” is a “stunning multimedia experience of Messi’s life and career” that is on tour, with future stops in Los Angeles and Buenos Aires. You’ll find it inside The Hangar at Regatta Harbor, 3385 Pan American Drive, Coconut Grove. Tickets start at $24.90+ at TheMessiExperience.com.

Warm and fuzzy: What better way to put you in a New York state of mind than rats. You have rats, we have rats. Yours scurry along the sidewalk (in broad daylight!), ours fly (all over the ice after Panthers victories, which means we go through a lot of them). Why Florida Panthers fans love rats is a long story. But please accept them as a symbol of our affection.  

The life of pie: Chicago pizza? Detroit pizza? New Haven pizza? (We don’t go to Connecticut for pizza, they come to us, am I right?) Can you just get a classic slice of New York pizza anymore? In South Florida, yes: Manhattan NY Restaurant & Pizza (1923 Cordova Road, Fort Lauderdale) sells by the slice and says its pizza is made with “New York water” (not a threat, a selling point). Delray Pizza (3025 S. Federal Highway, Delray Beach) also offers a “NY Cheese Slice.” 

Street food: Nothing like grabbing a cheap hot dog from a street vendor on the sidewalk. We don’t really have that (we’re not sure why we have sidewalks). But we’re hitting mango season just now, and as you stroll the neighborhood near your Airbnb, you may see a box of these tempting orbs by the sidewalk with a sign that says “free.” It’s not a scam. Take some, they’re delicious.

Home plates: Yankee Stadium is home to the refined dining experience of NYY Steak, but the restaurant has one other location, which happens to be in South Florida at Seminole Casino Coconut Creek (5550 NW 40th St., Coconut Creek). A  joint venture between the New York Yankees and Hard Rock International, the restaurant has baseball diamond-shaped dishes, dinner plates imprinted with retired Yankees numbers and a “signature wall,” featuring autographs of legendary players.

Street art: New York was the innovator in rebranding graffiti from subway-station crime into “outsider” art. Across South Florida, we can’t put up a tower of multimillion-dollar pieds-à-terre anymore without including a wall of colorful “urban” street cred. We take it seriously. In Wynwood, you’ll find the Museum of Graffiti, billed as the world’s first museum dedicated to the artform. While Wynwood’s maze of painted walls is falling to the wrecking ball of gentrification, another rich repository of public murals can be found at the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project, with more than three dozen works by artists from around the world. Another must-see right now: the exhibition of work by native New Yorker Cey Adams at Mad Arts (481 S. Federal Highway, Dania Beach). Adams sprung from the subversive era of graffiti art in downtown New York during the early 1980s (with peers Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring), then became creative director for influential hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings. 

Where is Del Boca Vista? It’s a question that we get often from visiting “Seinfeld” fans. It is nowhere (a mythical place, like Camelot and the Playboy Mansion) and everywhere. At the height of “Seinfeld” mania in the 1990s, the fictional Seinfelds’ move from New York to Del Boca Vista was inspired by real life: Series star Jerry Seinfeld’s mother, Betty, lived in Delray Beach. The show’s co-creator, Larry David, had parents living in Sunrise, and co-star Jason Alexander’s parents lived in Coconut Creek. We’re all residents of Del Boca Vista. Yada, yada.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.