What’s next for the Anthony Greco is unknown. But he’ll always have Jan. 13, 2022, the night he got to play for the Rangers in front of thousands — and one very special man a little higher up.…
Anthony Greco pulled on a red, white and blue jersey Thursday night at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., and skated in his first game with the Rangers, the team he grew up rooting for after inheriting his fandom from his parents, Paul and Mary Jane. His dad, everybody says, no doubt watched from above.
“We know he was watching,” Mary Jane told The Post in a phone interview on Friday. “Along with a lot of other guys up there cheering for him.” Around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Mary Jane received a text from her son saying he was going to make his Rangers debut that night. The Rangers are in the midst of their first significant coronavirus outbreak, which has sidelined several forwards to COVID-19 protocol in recent days.
Greco, who became the first Queens native to ever play for the Rangers, signed in New York after he had bounced around the AHL within the Panthers, Lightning and Sharks organizations. “He’d be like, ‘All right bro, I’m leaving Minnesota now, I’ll be there in 24 hours,’ ” said Pete Maslinski, a now-retired firefighter who worked alongside Paul at FDNY’s Squad 270. “To come to work! And I’m like, ‘What, are you out of your mind?’ He would call himself an asphalt cowboy, listen to country music, and he loved it.”