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How The New York Rangers Reached The Stanley Cup Finals

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The New York Rangers are in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 22 years, as they get set for Game 1 tonight on the road in the Staples Center at the Los Angeles Kings. Here’s a look at how the Rangers got here, both in the regular season and then in the playoffs.

Read how the Los Angeles Kings Reached The Stanley Cup Finals

*New York went 45-31-6 through the season and that was good for fifth in the Eastern Conference. Defense was the key to success, as the Rangers ranked fourth in goals allowed, while being in the middle of the pack offensively, at 15th.

*In both cases, their performance in goals scored and goals allowed, was the reverse of what you would expect based on their shots. New York was the second-best in the NHL at getting shots on goal, while they were middle of the pack at allowing them. What’s more, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist ranked in the middle of regular NHL goalies with his 92% save rate, making this team’s ultimately strong defensive performance a curious statistical anomaly.

HenrikLundqvist*New York swung a big deal at the trading deadline, moving Ryan Callahan to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for veteran Martin St. Louis, who was the hero of Tampa Bays’ 2004 run to the Stanley Cup. St. Louis’ 69 points in the regular season were the best on the Rangers, though that includes numbers compiled when he was in Tampa.

*The Rangers have quality second and third-level scorers. By that, I refer to their individual rank in the final NHL stats for points, goals, and assists. My crude statistical measurement is to take the top 30 in a category and consider them first-level, since a 30-team league means each of these players would be someone’s go-to guy if talent were equally disperses. By extension, ranks 31-60 would be second-level and 61-90 third level.

It’s far from a perfect system, but it establishes the Rangers have a nice array of depth, with Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan moving the puck and getting assists, while Rick Nash can light the lamp.

*New York got a break in the way the playoffs were structured. The league shifted from a conference-based format to a division-based one, and the result was the Rangers were able to play the Philadelphia Flyers, who had the sixth-best record in the East. New York won that series in seven games and then did the same to the Pittsburgh Penguins, rallying from a 3-1 series deficit.

Another break came when the Montreal Canadiens upset the top-seeded Boston Bruins in seven. The Canadiens were not only significantly less talented, but winning a rivalry series drained their emotions. And then the final break came when Montreal’s exceptional goalie, Carey Price, got hurt in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals. The road certainly opened up for New York.

*That doesn’t take away from just how good Lundqvist has been in this postseason. His 92.8% save rate is the best of any NHL goalie in these playoffs and that includes seven games against Pittsburgh’s dazzling array of offensive weaponry. It also includes Lundqvist’s magnificent 1-0 shutout of Montreal in the clinching Game 6, a clutch performance that had been lacking from his otherwise strong career resume to date.

*Lundqvist has really carried New York in the playoffs. While Los Angeles has gotten here by seeing a variety of players increase their offensive production in the crunch, no one is really standing out for the Rangers. Ryan McDonagh was the team’s best player outside of the goalie in the Montreal series. But the 13 points of St. Louis and Stepan lead New York in the playoffs, while the Kings have six players at or above that number.

What it really comes down to is that Henrik Lundqvist is the Stanley Cup Finals version of what LeBron James is in the NBA Finals. In each case you have a player capable of carrying his team to a series win, but will have to do it against a superior team.

No position in sports—not an NFL quarterback, not the best player on an NBA team—can influence a short series the way a goaltender can in hockey. That alone is reason to reject the conventional wisdom that says the Kings all but won the Stanley Cup on Sunday night in Chicago. New York has the hot goalie and they have offensive players who the regular season suggests can lift their performances over and above what they’ve currently done in the playoffs.

Read the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals Preview

Henrik Lundqvist Lets Down The New York Rangers Again

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Is there a goalie in the NHL with a better knack for coming up small in a big moment than New York Rangers’ netminder Henrik Lundqvist? New York has a goalie that is consistently one of the best in the NHL through the regular season. His presence looms over a playoff series because you know that if he gets locked in, he can personally carry his team. And yet it never happens. Last night was the latest case in point.

New York was trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in games. Lundqvist was immediately beaten by Evgeni Malkin for a goal less than three minutes in. After the Rangers tied it back up, Lundqvist was beaten for a shorthanded goal, where he was unable to cover the puck as it stood just a couple feet from him and was swept into the net.


You can come up with a reasonable excuse on either of the first two goals. Malkin made a great shot, and Lundqvist had lost his balance after the initial thrust on Pittsburgh’s shorthanded breakaway—and it’s certainly fair to ask New York’s power play unit how Pittsburgh managed to get an odd-man rush to begin with.

But there’s no excusing what took place in the third period. New York’s Matts Zuccarello had just scored on a beautiful move to pull the Rangers to within 3-2. There was about seven minutes to play, Madison Square Garden was rocking and the fans had renewed hope.

Within two minutes of game time, the hope was snuffed out. Chris Kunitz beat Lundqvist on a simple shot that a professional goalie—never mind one of the best in the NHL—needs to stop in his sleep. It was from close-in, and Kunitz is a talented offensive player. But there was no screener to block the goalie’s view and Kunitz didn’t have any room to put a move on. It was a simple shot off a pass and it found the back of the net.

READ THE COMPLETE BLOG COLLECTION OF THE 2013 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS
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Game over, and the Rangers now need to win three in a row.

You could overlook this if it were one bad night, but this has become a pattern for Lundqvist. While his performance in the playoffs overall has been fine, he’s got a knack for coming up small at the moments when his team cries out for a “get-on-my-back-and-I’ll-carry-you” kind of moment.

Lundqvist was outplayed by New Jersey Devils’ legend Martin Brodeur in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, the best chance Lundqvist has had to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. He was outplayed by Boston Bruins up-and-comer Tuuka Raask in the second round last year.

The New York goalie had an exceptional showing in last year’s first-round win over the Washington Capitals, which I suppose proves that he’s not as big a playoff head case as Alex Ovechkin, but I don’t think anyone considers that something to hang your hat on.

What the New York Rangers need to hang their hat on is not just decent goaltending, but exceptional goaltending. Right now, Lundqvist is the hockey version of Alex Rodriguez minus the PEDs—a great talent, one you can’t deny wanting on your team, one that opposing fans are aware can take over—but who manages to break your heart.

1994 New York Rangers: Ending A 54-Year Championship Drought

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The 1994 New York Rangers carried the longest championship drought was the longest in the NHL, and there was no sign of better things to come when the season began. They’d missed the playoffs the previous year and even bringing in a respected coach in Mike Keenan didn’t give reason for anyone to believe a Stanley Cup run was in the offing.

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After nine games they were 4-5, but at the point the team took off. The next fourteen games produced a 12-0-2 record and after a loss stopped the streak, the Rangers immediately rattled off a 6-0-1 run. By the time the calendar turned to 1994, they were 26-9-3. A couple more good win streaks before the season was over sewed up the Atlantic Division title and the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Keenan’s team was led in scoring by Adam Graves and got great passing from the defenseman, in Brian Leetch and Sergei Zubov. They had depth, with five players outside the core getting 20+ goals. But the heart and soul of the New York Rangers was Mark Messier, the center who’d been the sidekick for Wayne Gretzky in Edmonton.

Gretzky’s dominance was so complete that it could only be understood by comparing him across sports, to the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Jordan. Messier played the role of Scottie Pippen in Edmonton. Now he was the leader in New York and this was the chance for a title.

On April 17, the Big Apple hunkered down for an intra-city rumble. It was Rangers-Islanders. And it was also no-contest. The elites of the city crushed the peasantry, as the Rangers won their first two games at Madison Square Garden on back-to-back days, each by a score of 6-0. Three days later, play resumed in Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum and the favorites closed it out with wins of 5-1 and 5-2.

Messier’s team got a week off while the seventh-seeded Washington Capitals fought and ultimately upset the two-seed Pittsburgh Penguins, meaning it would be the Caps that would match up with New York in the conference semi-finals, as the NHL re-seeded the bracket after the opening round.

New York and Washington dropped the puck in MSG on May 1. The home team kept its offensive outbursts going with a 6-3 win, and followed it up two nights later with a 5-2 triumph. The Rangers went down to D.C., scored five more goals in Game 3 win, and even though they finally lost a postseason game in Game 4, the series was closed out back home with a 4-3 win.

It was a nearby rival that awaited in a battle for the Eastern Conference title. The New Jersey Devils were the 3rd seed, but with a better overall record than division winner Pittsburgh. Rangers-Devils would prove to be one of the greatest series in NHL playoff history.

New Jersey took the ice in Madison Square Garden knowing it could match up with the conference’s top seed. Devils’ goalie Martin Brodeur was already becoming one of the best in the business, beginning a career that would ultimately win him three rings and get a Finals appearance as late as 2012.

The Devils’ offense didn’t have the depth or star power of New York’s, but they consistently lit the lamp, ranking 2nd in the NHL in goals scored. Scott Stevens distributed sixty assists from the center spot while Stephane Richer and Jon Maclean were the primary scorers on the wings. The first game of the series sent a message that fans were in for a classic.

New York clung to a 2-1 lead in the final minute, when New Jersey’s Claude Lemieux scored. It went to double overtime and a goal from Richer stole the opener for the Devils. Home ice had changed hands, even though the Rangers came back with a must-win 4-0 triumph in Game 2.

The Rangers did what they had to do in Game 3 and that’s get a road win. It was another double overtime affair, with Stephen Matteau scoring the game-winner in the 3-2 final. But things quickly turned sour for New York, as New Jersey controlled play the next two games with consecutive wins of 3-1 and 4-1. New York had to go the Meadowlands for Game 6 with its season on the line.

It’s moments like this when leaders can become legends and Messier knew his moment. He stepped up and guaranteed the Ranger fans that they would see a Game 7. Guarantees have become overblown in the years since Joe Namath made history’s most famous guarantee before the Jets upset the Colts in the 1968 Super Bowl and then Riley resurrected the practice for the 1988 Los Angeles Lakers.

But they’re not overblown when followed up with a moment the sports world saw on a Wednesday night in late May. The Devils were up 2-1 after two periods and with a defense and goalie like they had, the Finals were in their grasp. In the third period Messier scored to tie the game…he scored to give New York the lead…and he scored to add insurance. A third period hat trick backed up the guarantee and sent the series to Game 7.

With a pair of double-overtime games and an epic individual performance this series was already one for the books. Game 7 upped the ante. A tense affair throughout, New York led 1-0 and was literally seven seconds from a win, when New Jersey tied the game. We had overtime again. And we had double overtime again. For the second time, Matteau got to be a hero, scoring on a wraparound to win it 2-1 and at long last send the Rangers to the Finals.

Vancouver was the opponent in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals, and the Canucks were on an unlikely postseason run—although in the NHL this happens so frequently, it’s not really about whether there will be an unlikely run, but who will get hot at the right time. Vancouver was the #7 seed in the West, and had only one elite scorer, although right-winger Pavel Burel was at a level higher than elite, with 60 goals and 47 assists.

The Canucks upset Calgary in the first round, and the conference’s eight-seed, San Jose, knocked out favored Detroit. Vancouver made the Finals by eliminating #4 Dallas and #3 Toronto.

The series opener was all-too familiar to New York fans. The Rangers led 2-1 with less than a minute to play…and allowed the game-tying goal and then lost in overtime. It was astonishing third time in eight games that they’d given up a tying goal in the final minute and they’d lost two of those three.

But Messier’s Rangers calmly came back and played good hockey in Game 2, winning a 3-1 decision. Then they toyed with Vancouver in Games 3 & 4. The Canucks were spotted a 1-0 lead in Game 3 and a 2-0 lead in Game 4, before the Rangers took over both times, with wins of 5-1 and 4-2. Only one win separated them from that long-sought Cup and they had three shots to get it.

The city of New York was planning on celebrating a championship after Game 5. The parade was even planned. What wasn’t planned was the Canucks coming out firing, and leading 3-0 early in the third period. As they had in the previous two games, New York came storming back and in a ten-minute span tied the score. But this time Vancouver had an answer with three more goals of their own in a wild closing period.

Whenever a team leading a series 3-1 loses Game 5 at home, it tightens the noose and shifts the pressure. Now New York had to either find a way to win on the road or face a winner-take-all home game no one expected to happen even days earlier. And Vancouver forced a Game 7.

We were back in MSG on Tuesday night, June 14th. The Rangers jumped out to a 2-0 lead, got the momentum of the series turned around and the crowd into it. Vancouver’s Trevor Linden responded with a shorthanded goal that stood ready to haunt New Yorkers if the Canucks could use it as a rallying point.

Again the Rangers relied on their leader. Messier scored a goal for some insurance and even though Linden came back with a third period goal of his own, the Rangers hung on for a 3-2 win. The taunting chants the team long had to endure of “1940!”, a reminder of how long it had been for the franchise, were finally put to rest. Messier and the 1994 New York Rangers hoisted the Stanley Cup.