In 1992, the Rangers won the President's Cup before losing to Pittsburgh in the Patrick Division Finals. Everybody thought that was the team that was going to break the Curse. Two years later, they did. Two years ago, the Rangers were the best team in hockey. They finished with the most points (Vancouver got the President's Cup on a tiebreaker) and had home ice throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, but lost to the Devils in the Conference Finals.
The Head Coach of the 1994 Rangers was Mike Keenan, who was in his first season after replacing the fired Roger Neilson. Current Rangers coach Alain Vigneaut is in his first season. After replacing the fired John Tortorella.
Now on to the differences, the most obvious of which is that those Rangers had a captain. Perhaps the best captain in franchise history. These Rangers haven't had a captain since the trade deadline, when Ryan Callahan was sent to Tampa Bay for Martin St. Louis.
That brings me to another similarity. In 1994, the Rangers traded Hall of Famer Mike Gartner to Toronto at the deadline for Glenn Anderson, who was one of the many former Oilers on that squad. Gartner never got his name on the Cup. That's the closest he came. Anderson, meanwhile, like Messier and Kevin Lowe, won the Cup six times, five in Edmonton, one in New York. Callahan, a career Ranger until the trade, has never won a Cup. St. Louis was the captain of the 2004 Lightning, where he was a teammate of Brad Richards.
Richards is one of the many stars on this Rangers roster. There are eight 2014 Olympians on the roster, including four guys who played in the gold medal game (Rick Nash, Martin St. Louis, Carl Hagelin, Henrik Lundqvist). The 1994 Rangers had some legendary names, four of whose jerseys now hang in the Garden rafters. The best defenseman on the team 20 years ago? American Brian Leetch. The best defenseman now? American Ryan McDonagh.
Another American, Mike Richter, is widely considered the greatest goalie in franchise history. At least he was until Henrik Lundqvist came around. Richter won the Rangers a Stanley Cup. He also won an Olympic silver medal (2002) and a World Cup of Hockey (1996) for the United States. Now Lundqvist has a chance to get his Cup to go along with an Olympic gold (2006) and silver (2014) for Sweden.
When the Rangers had a chance to close out the Canadiens in Game 5, I thought it was an omen. The game was played on May 27, 20 years to the day of Stephane Matteau's double-overtime winner in Game 7 against the Devils. Well, that obviously wasn't the Rangers' destiny that day. And neither is winning the Cup on June 14, the 20-year anniversary of their Game 7 win over the Canucks. Even though the NHL usually goes with a Monday-Wednesday-Saturday schedule for the Stanley Cup Finals, Game 5 is on Friday, June 13 instead (I'm assuming this is because of U.S. Open golf, but I'm not 100 sure).
And lastly, to tie it all together. Eddie Olczyk was a little-used forward who only saw action in one playoff game for the 1994 Rangers. In 2014, he'll once again be watching the Rangers in the Stanley Cup Finals from the press box. As NBC's analyst. The backup goalie from that Rangers team 20 years ago will also have a similar seat for this year's Finals. Glenn Healy is that guy next to Pierre McGuire between the boards, doing the same thing for CBC on Hockey Night in Canada.
I obviously have no idea how the Stanley Cup Finals are going to play out. The Rangers won't even find out who they play until tomorrow night. But if that 1994 Cup run seemed predestined, this one certainly came as much more of a surprise. And no matter what happens, we've enjoyed the ride. Hopefully we get to enjoy it all the way until that parade down the Canyon of Heroes. Just like the one 20 years ago.
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