NHL

The craziest 8 days in Rangers history

TORONTO — No per manent damage was done in the standings, only to the heart. It is 35 years to the day from the beginning of the most traumatic week in Rangers history, an anniversary that never will be commemorated at the Garden.

There were eight days to that Halloween hockey week of 1975, nine days during which Emile Francis deconstructed a roster, a lineage and an identity “the Cat” himself painstakingly had built for the Blueshirts over the previous decade.

First, on Oct. 31, Eddie Giacomin was waived to Detroit. Then, on Nov. 2, Giacomin returned to the Garden as a Red Wing to the greatest spontaneous demonstration of support in New York sports history.

Then, on Nov. 7, the aftershock that ended an era and invited charges of sedition against Francis himself when the GM traded Brad Park and Jean Ratelle (plus Joe Zanussi) to the Bruins for Phil Esposito and Carol Vadnais.

You know what that trade was? You know what that calamitous nine-day week was? It was the Yankees sending Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera to the Red Sox for David Ortiz and Tim Wakefield in 2005 after waiving Bernie Williams a week earlier.

That’s what it was to the traumatized fan base that had grown up with and on Ratelle, Giacomin, Rod Gilbert and Park, and on a classy, almost elegant team that either wasn’t quite good enough or mean enough to win it all, after coming so tantalizingly close for a half decade beginning with 1969-70.

Odd, though (or maybe not), but for most of the players left behind, it apparently was pretty much business as usual, only a change in the names on the backs of the sweaters.

“It’s not like somebody died,” Pete Stemkowski, an integral part of the best teams of that era, told Slap Shots on Friday. “For us, players coming and going was just part of it.

“I remember this one time, Jack Egers’ wife had a baby on a Friday. On Monday, we were all playing poker at Long Beach, where we practiced and most of us lived.

“The phone rings, and it’s the Cat. Egers figures he’s calling to congratulate him. Nope. The Cat tells him he’s been traded to St. Louis.”

That was Nov. 15, 1971, and one of Francis’ most regrettable deals: Egers, Moose Dupont and Mike Murphy to the Blues for Gene Carr, Jim Lorentz and Wayne Connelly.

Players come and go, but players like Giacomin were not waived. Even the 22-year-old goaltender, who had been acquired from St. Louis in June 1975 to back up Giacomin, realized that.

“We were flying to Montreal for a game the next day and I went to the back of the plane, and there was no Eddie,” John Davidson told Slap Shots on Thursday. “So I found [trainer] Frank Paice and asked where he was.

“Frank’s face was ashen. ‘He’s not here,’ he told me. ‘He was waived to Detroit.’ I didn’t know what to think.

“There was no clue anything was coming. No hint. I was brought in to support Eddie and then suddenly there I was, 22, the No. 1 goaltender in New York City. And here two days later comes Eddie with the Red Wings. It was surreal.”

Giacomin’s return prompted the fans to root against the Rangers. “Eddie . . . Eddie . . . Eddie . . . Eddie . . . Eddie . . .” There’s been “Paul O’Neill . . .” There’s been, “D-FENSE” There’s never been anything like Nov. 2, 1975, and Red Wings 6, Rangers 4 in this city.

“Here’s the crazy part,” Stemkowski said. “The day of a home game, we’d get rooms at a hotel across the street from the Garden and go down to the lobby coffee shop for some toast and tea.

“The Red Wings were staying a few blocks away, but who comes into the coffee shop and sits down with us? Eddie.”

As JD remembers it, “After the game, Eddie made a point of seeking me out. He couldn’t have been classier.”

The Rangers traveled west after losing to Detroit, a record of 4-7-1, their time as contenders over. For years (and now decades later) you could recite the lines by heart: Vic Hadfield-Ratelle-Gilbert; Dave Balon/Bob Nevin/Carr/Steve Vickers-Walter Tkaczuk-Billy Fairbairn; Ted Irvine-Stemkowski-Wee Bruce MacGregor.

For years you knew the defense: Park-Dale Rolfe, Rod Seiling-Chief Neilson, Tim Horton, Arnie Brown.

But that became history during those Nine Days of Trauma, became history when Francis and Boston GM Harry Sinden engineered the trade that left pretty much every fan on both sides of the equation feeling betrayed and bitter (not to mention Espo).

“I got a call in my hotel room in Oakland that morning and thought it was a practical joke,” Stemkowski said. “But then we’re on our way to the rink [to play the California Golden Seals] and it’s true.

“I’ll tell you, Phil didn’t like anything about anything that we did. He didn’t like our hotels. He didn’t like the trainer handing out the meal money. ‘We didn’t do it that way in Boston!’ ‘That’s not the way we did it in Boston!’

“Hey, Phil, it wasn’t Boston.”

The thing was, the Rangers weren’t the Rangers, either, not then, not after the most traumatic week in franchise history that began 35 years ago today.

larry.brooks@nypost.com