Rangers are in exactly the wrong position to want to be in, but history may yet be on their side.
Though the Blueshirts lost Game 5 at the Garden on Thursday night and are down 3-2 to the Panthers in the Eastern Conference finals, there’s a promising, but rather eerie, connection to the 1994 team.
Not only had the Stanley Cup champions lost Game 6 of their third-round series against the rival Devils; But there are some striking similarities How did they get there?
Like the current Rangers, the 1994 team lost Games 1, 4 and 5 but won Games 2 and 3.
The Devils had a chance to win Game 6 in New Jersey, but the team was already losing at that point, and Mark Messier made his now-famous guarantee, immortalized in the back page of the Washington Post.
“We’re going to go win Game 6. We’re going to win Game 6 and force a Game 7,” Messier said at the time.
Not only did the Rangers win Game 6, but Messier recorded a natural hat trick in the third period to force a Game 7 at MSG.
From there, the Blueshirts won in double overtime on a goal from Stephane Matteau, sending the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final, where they ultimately defeated the Canucks.
Matteau told The Washington Post’s Mark Cannizaro in early May that he doesn’t believe natural phenomena — a local earthquake and solar eclipse this year and in 1994 — had anything to do with the Rangers’ fate, but he believes the team has what it takes to win a championship.
“I don’t believe in earthquakes or eclipses. I just believe in the team,” Matteau said. “They have a great chance to win the Stanley Cup. We can’t be afraid to say the words ‘Stanley Cup.’ This is not a rebuild.”
While there may be no guarantees, Rangers fans can hold on to some hope heading into Game 6 in Florida.
