1994: A Glorious Year for NY Sports (Except for baseball… and every team not named the Knicks or Rangers) Part 2

Read Part One Here: 1994: A Glorious Year for NY Sports (Except for baseball… and every team not named the Knicks or Rangers) Part 1

Coming off the 1992-3 season where they failed to make the playoffs, the NY Rangers’ 1993-1994 season was a welcome dream. The team seemed to have it all including a tough minded coach in Mike Keenan and what seemed like half of the previous Edmonton Oilers squad that had won multiple Cups: Graves, Tikkanen, MacTavish, Glenn Anderson, and of course, the Captain and soon to be grand hero of NYC, Mark friggin Messier.  The defense was led by dual threats Leetch and Zubov. The net was minded by Mike Richter, who before the 1993-4 season had a career GAA somewhere over 3.  Heading into the season, Richter was at least in my eyes a wildcard and potential weak link in the team.  He certainly proved me wrong.  As the regular season closed, you could kind of get the sense that something potentially magical was happening. They were playing friggin awesome and boasted the best record in the league with 52 wins and 112 points (and this was before you got a point for losing in overtime). The team was not shutout once all season.  That’s unreal. They even had great power play and penalty kill units.  But, as a life-long Ranger’s fan, part of me wanted to believe and part of me was afraid of the reverse jinx and inevitable exit from the playoffs. Could this be the year… finally?  We fans certainly got spoiled early on in the playoffs as the Rangers swept the hated Islanders 4-0 and outscored them 22-3 for the series.  What? This can’t be that easy. Is this team really that good…

Meanwhile in the NBA, Michael Jordan shocked the world by retiring right before the 1993-4 season began, which meant that somebody else in the Eastern Conference actually had a chance to make it to the Finals. Maybe the Knicks could?  Why not. The Knicks were good back then folks; filled with tough minded players like Anthony Mason and Charles Oakley, a great scorer in John Starks, and a superstar in Patrick Ewing.  They had a good coach in Pat Riley and were coming off of a 60 win season which saw them up 2-0 on the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals before Jordan woke up and, you know… did Jordan things. I was old enough to sort of remember the last Championship in 1973, but couldn’t be sure if I actually remembered it, just had memories of my dad running around the room like a banshee when they won, or had false memories of it based on what my dad told me later. I know I watched the games because that was what my dad and I did back then.  Memory of past glory or not, I was more than ready for another round.  It certainly looked like it was more than possible early on as the Knicks won their first 7 games. Later in the season they would win 15 games in a row (that’s win, not lose) and finished with 57 wins and first place in the Atlantic Division by a cushy 7 game margin.  Similar to the Rangers, the Knicks got off to a quick start in the playoffs, defeating the New Jersey Nets 3-1.  Up next… the dreaded Bulls. But wait, wasn’t Michael Jordan still retired? 

Due to the fact that the Rangers and Knicks both play their home games at the same arena, a place known as Madison Square Garden (MSG), schedulers had to stagger the games. So that meant that typically, one night the Rangers were playing and you lost your mind, and the next night the Knicks were playing, and you lost your mind again. On May 8th the Knicks opened their series against the Jordan-less Bulls.  Shouldn’t be a problem right? No Jordan, no worries. Wrong. The Knicks got off to a horrible start, or maybe the Bulls came out flying led by Scottie Pippin, I don’t remember, but either way, the Knicks were down 6 points after quarter 1 and by 10 at the half.  Only a crazy strong 4^th quarter gave the Knicks the win at 90-86. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so easy. But a win is a win. May 9^th saw the Rangers defeat the dreaded Washington Capitals 4-3 and they took the Eastern Conference Finals rather easily 4-1.   We were getting spoiled by the Rangers… we… gulp…started to believe.  All we had to do was wait for the next round to begin and for the G-damn Devils to come to town…

Wait, the Devils you say? Why isn’t the author a Devil’s fan since he grew up in NJ and all? Good question. Well, the Devils started out as the Kansas City Scouts back in 1974, moved to Colorado and became the Rockies in 1976 and finally moved to NJ in 1982, becoming the Devils, so  named after the NJ Pinebarrens folklore legend, the New Jersey Devil which was described as part kangaroo, part horse, part dog, and part bat, with the obligatory horns and tail.  No wonder the team just went an “NJ” as their logo.  Nevertheless, I was already well invested in the Rangers by then and wasn’t about to change teams for anybody, not even a part kangaroo, horse, dog and bat thingy.  (Though I wouldn’t have minded the subsequent three Stanley Cups). 

While we waited for the NHL Conference finals to begin, the Bulls were giving the Knicks all they could handle. I remember yelling at the TV “Hey guys… Jordan doesn’t play anymore, so stop fargin acting like he is still out there”.  After a game 2 win 96-91 at MSG, the Knicks dropped a heartbreaker of a game 3 in Chicago 104-102 despite getting 34 points from Ewing and almost completing a furious comeback win in the 4^th quarter.  May 15^th brought NY a doubleheader as both the Knicks in Chicago and the Rangers at MSG played. What a glorious Sunday!  Wake up to the smell of (Italian) gravy coming from the kitchen, no need to get out of your PJs.  Just needed to get ready to point plenty of Italian hexes at the opposing players and watch some glorious TV.

For the Rangers, maybe other team’s fans would have been feeling pretty good about facing the Devils despite their 2^nd place regular season finish and 106 total points.  I mean the Rangers beat them all 6 times they faced off in the regular season. We had their number right? Plus, they had a rookie goaltender by the name of Martin Brodeur. Surely, he would get rattled in his first playoffs, especially in hostile MSG correct? No and no and us in the know knew better.  Despite scoring 3:36 in the game, the Rangers would go on to lose in double OT 4-3.  Yep. Bring the f’n battle.  Also on that Sunday, the Knicks came out flat and stayed that way against the Bulls and lost 95-83.  The series was now tied 2-2. Operation “Double Sharts Sunday” was complete. Thank goodness for mom’s comfort food of baked ziti with homemade meatballs, pork, and braciole. 

(To be continued)