Although my burning passion is football, I do like other sports. With hockey and basketball, I cannot sit through an entire 82 game season. I tune in when the playoffs arrive. Even then, sitting through a whole game is tough.
Yet show me a close basketball game late in the fourth quarter and I will focus. Show me a close hockey game in the third period or a game in overtime, and I am glued to the screen.
There is an unwritten law in basketball and hockey that the referees should let the players play. Any Raiders fan who has suffered through the “tuck rule” wishes the NFL referees would get out of the way as well.
In basketball, the foul at the end of a game is usually a non-call.
In hockey, if a player garats another one in playoff overtime, the refs try to let it go. If there is blood everywhere, they they call a ticky-tack foul on the other team to even it out. Let the players play.
Yet sadly, my hockey team is the New York Rangers. There has been much sorrow and very little joy.
Growing up on Long Island, I had to suffer through watching the Islanders win it every year. The Rangers were awful. Even when we had Olympic legend Herb Brooks as our coach, the conference finals were still a 4-0 Islanders sweep of the Rangers. There was no miracle on ice.
The Islanders won it all in 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983. In 1984 they got to the finals again. They were blasted in 5 games by the Edmonton Oilers, who would win 5 of the next 7 Stanley Cups. Those Oilers had Wayne Gretzky, Jarri Kurri, Mark Messier, and many others. They might have been the greatest hockey team ever.
All Ranger fans had in 1984 was a lame chant about the Islanders, “The drive for five is not alive.” They failed to win 5 straight. Yay us.
As for the Rangers, they won it all in 1940. The next 54 years were awful.
The Rangers were a funny team. When they had the top seed, they would go down in flames. Yet when they barely made the playoffs as the lowest # 8 seed, they would sometimes advance.
In 1990 they were great, but a strike late in the year disrupted momentum. In 1992 they had a great team and again got bounced in the playoffs.
Finally in 1994 they won it all. Coach Mike Keenan, star Mark Messier (yes, that same hero from the Oilers), an appropriately named enforcer Jeff Beukeboom, and goaltender Mike Richter finally eliminated the ghosts at Madison Square Garden. The conference finals against the rival New Jersey Devils went to overtime in game 7 in what may have been the greatest series in NHL history. I game 6 Messier guaranteed victory, and backed it up with a 3rd period hat trick. The 7th game was tied with 8 seconds left and eventually settled in double overtime.
The finals also went 7 games, and the Rangers outlasted the Vancouver Canucks. The potential tying goal by Vancouver hit the post with 7 minutes left as New York held on 3-2.
After the championship, Coach Keenan quick and the dark days returned. 17 years later, the Rangers just break hearts.
Last year the Rangers and Flyers played each other in the final regular season game. The winner would be the lowest playoff seed while the losers would be out. It went to an overtime shootout, and the Flyers won. The Rangers missed the playoffs while the Flyers rode the # 8 seed all the way to the finals.
This year the Rangers needed help, but on the last day of the regular season the Carolina Hurricanes lost. Carolina was the # 9 seed with 91 points while the Rangers escaped with 93 points and the # 8 seed.
I will wish the Blueshirts luck. They are playing the top seed Washington Capitals. The Capitals have a history in recent years of having a top seed and flaming out. So maybe the Rangers will pull off another miracle.
As of this writing, the Capitals lead the series 2-0. Now the series shifts back to New York.
The Rangers are my lovable losers, but I remember 1994. I still believe.
Go Blueshirts!
eric