History of the New York Rangers
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
In 1925, the New York Americans joined the National Hockey League, playing in Madison Square Garden. The Amerks proved to be an even greater success than expected, leading Garden president Tex Rickard to go after a team for the Garden despite promising the Amerks that they would be the only hockey team to play there.
Rickard was granted a franchise, which he originally planned to name the New York Giants. However, the New York press soon nicknamed his team "Tex's Rangers," and the new name stuck. Rickard managed to get future legendary Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe to assemble the team. However, Smythe had a falling-out with Rickard's hockey man, Col. John S. Hammond, and was fired as manager-coach on the eve of the first season — he was paid a then-hefty $2500 to leave the Big Apple. Smythe was replaced by Pacific Coast Hockey Association co-founder Lester Patrick, but kept all of the players Smythe had assembled. The new team turned out to be a winner. The Rangers won the American Division title their first year but lost to the Boston Bruins in the playoffs. To this day, the Rangers are the most successful expansion team in the history of the NHL. The team's early success led to players becoming minor celebrities and fixtures in New York City's Roaring 20's nightlife.
[edit] 1927-28 Stanley Cup
In only their second year of existence, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Montreal Maroons three games to two. One of the most memorable stories that emerged from the Finals involved Patrick suiting up in goal at the ripe age of 44. At the time, teams were not required to dress a backup goaltender so when the Rangers' regular goaltender, Lorne Chabot, went down with an eye injury, Maroons head coach Eddie Gerard vetoed his original choice for a replacement (who was Alex Connell, another NHL goalie of the old Ottawa Senators, who was in attendance for the game). An angry Patrick lined up between the pipes for two periods in game two of the Stanley Cup Finals, allowing one goal to Maroons' center Nels "Old Poison" Stewart. Frank Boucher would score the game-winner in overtime to seal victory for New York. An expansion team would not come this far this fast in North American professional sports until the Philadelphia Atoms won the North American Soccer League title in their first year of existence.
[edit] 1932-33 Stanley Cup
After a loss in the finals in 1928-29 to the Bruins and a few mediocre seasons in the early 1930s, the Rangers, led by brothers Bill and Bun Cook on the right and left wings, respectively, and Frank Boucher at center, would defeat Toronto in the 1932-33 best-of-five finals, three games to one, to win their second Stanley Cup, exacting revenge on the Leafs' "Kid line", Harvey "Busher" Jackson, "Gentleman Joe" Primeau and Charlie "The Big Bomber" Conacher. The Rangers would spend the rest of the 1930s playing close to .500 hockey until their next Cup win. Lester Patrick stepped down as Head Coach and handed the reins to Frank Boucher.
[edit] 1939-40 Stanley Cup
In 1939-40 the Rangers finished the regular season in second place behind the Bruins. The two teams would square off in the first round of the playoffs. The Bruins gained a two-games-to-one-series lead from the Rangers until they stormed back winning three straight games to hold off the first-place Bruins. The Rangers eventually won the best-of-seven series, four games to two. Their first-round victory gave the Rangers a bye until the finals. The Detroit Red Wings disposed of the New York Americans in their first round best-of-three series two games to one (even as the Americans had analytical and notorious ex-Bruins star Eddie Shore) and the Toronto Maple Leafs ousted the Chicago Black Hawks two games to none. The Maple Leafs and Red Wings would play a best-of-three series to determine who would go on to play the Rangers in the Cup finals. The Maple Leafs swept the Red Wings and the Finals match-up was determined. The 1939-40 Stanley Cup Finals started in Madison Square Garden in New York. The first two games went to the Rangers. In game one the Rangers needed overtime to gain a 1-0 series lead and won game two quite handily with a 6-2 victory. The series then headed north to Toronto with the Maple Leafs winning the next two games on home ice, thereby tying the series 2-2. In games five and six the Rangers won both contests in overtime and won the series four games to two over the Maple Leafs to earn their third Stanley Cup.
The Rangers would collapse by the mid-1940s, losing games by as much as 15-0 and having one goaltender with a 6.20 goals-against average. They would miss the playoffs for five consecutive seasons before squeaking into the fourth and final playoff spot in 1948. They lost the first round and would miss the playoffs again in 1949. In the 1950 finals the Rangers were forced to play all of their games on the road (home games in Toronto) while the circus was at the Garden. They would end up losing to the Detroit Red Wings in overtime in the seventh game of the finals, despite a stellar first-round performance as underdogs to the Montreal Canadiens.
During this time, Red Wings owner James Norris, Sr. became the largest stockholder in the Garden. However, he did not buy controlling interest in the arena, which would have violated the NHL's rule against one person owning more than one team.
[edit] The post-Original Six era
The Rangers remained a mark of futility in the NHL for the next 20 years, before rejuvenation in the late 1960s, symbolized by moving into a newly-rebuilt Madison Square Garden in 1968. They made the playoffs for the first time in five years on the strength of rookie goaltender Eddie Giacomin, and acquired 1950s Montreal star right wing Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion.
The Blueshirts made the Finals twice in the 1970s, but lost both times: to two ' 70s dynasties, the Boston Bruins in 1972, in six games, who were led by such stars as Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, Johnny Bucyk and Wayne Cashman; and in 1979, in five games to the Habs, who had Bob Gainey, Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Ken Dryden, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard. This time the Blueshirts had “Espo”, but it didn't matter; the Habs looked clearly dominant.
By 1972, the Rangers reached the Stanley Cup finals despite losing high-scoring center Jean Ratelle (who had been on track over Bruin Phil Esposito to become the first Ranger since Bryan Hextall in 1942 to lead the NHL in scoring) to injury during the stretch drive of the regular season. The strength of people like Brad Park, Ratelle, Vic Hadfield, and Rod Gilbert (the last three constructing the famed "GAG line", meaning "goal-a-game") would still carry them through the playoffs. They would defeat the defending champion Canadiens in the first round and the Chicago Blackhawks in the second, but lost to Boston in the finals.
Their new rivals, the New York Islanders, who entered the league in 1972 after paying a huge territorial fee — some $4 million — to the Rangers, were their first-round opponent in 1975. After splitting the first two games, the Islanders defeated the more established Rangers, eleven seconds into overtime of the deciding game three, establishing a rivalry that continued to grow for years after.
After some off years in the mid-to-late 1970s, they picked up Esposito and Carol Vadnais from the Bruins for Park, Ratelle and Joe Zanussi in 1975. Swedish stars Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson jumped to the Rangers from the maverick World Hockey Association. And in 1979 they defeated the surging Islanders in the Semi-Finals and would return to the finals again before bowing out to the Canadiens. The Islanders got their revenge however, eliminating the Rangers in 4 consecutive playoff series' starting in 1981 en route to their second of four consecutive Stanley Cup titles.
The Rangers stayed competitive through the 1980s and early 1990s, making the playoffs each year except for one but never going very far. An exception was 1985-86, when the Rangers, behind rookie goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck, upended the Patrick Division winner Philadelphia Flyers in a decisive fifth game followed by a six-game win over the Washington Capitals in the Patrick Division Finals. Montreal disposed of the Rangers in the Wales Conference Finals behind a rookie goaltender of their own, Patrick Roy. The Blueshirts acquired superstar center Marcel Dionne after almost 12 years as a Los Angeles King the next year. In 1988, Dionne moved into third place in career goals scored (since bettered by "The Golden Brett" Hull). But Dionne's always-churning legs started to slow the next year, thereby ensuring that his goals came further and further apart. “Because you love the game so much, you think it will never end,” [citation needed] said Dionne, who spent nine games in the minors before retiring in 1989. He’d only played 49 playoff games in 17 seasons with the Rangers, Kings and Detroit Red Wings.
Still, the many playoff failures convinced Rangers fans that this was a manifestation of the Curse of 1940, which is said to either have begun when the Rangers' management burnt the mortgage to Madison Square Garden in the bowl of the Stanley Cup after the 1940 victory, or by Mervyn "Red" Dutton following the collapse of the New York Americans franchise. The year 1940 also became synomynous with the famous chant of "Nineteen Forty" which was sung by fans of opposing teams, especially those of their most hated rival, the Islanders. In the 1994 playoffs New Jersey Devils fans used it, but after Stephane Matteau's drama, Devs fans were stripped of that scream for good.
Frustration was at its peak when the 1991-92 squad captured the Presidents' Trophy. They took a 2-1 series lead on the defending champ Pittsburgh Penguins and then faltered in three straight (most observers note a Ron Francis slapshot from the blue line that eluded Mike Richter as the series' turning point) to the eventual Cup-winning Pens, under legend Mario Lemieux. The following year a 1-11 finish landed the Rangers in the Patrick Division cellar. Coach Roger Neilson did not finish the season. The off-season hiring of controversial head coach "Iron Mike" Keenan was criticized by many who pointed out Keenan's 0-3 record in the Finals.
[edit] 1993-94 Stanley Cup
1993-94 was a magical season for Rangers fans. Two years previous, they picked up center Mark Messier, who was an integral part of the Edmonton Oilers' Cup winning teams. Adam Graves who also defected from the Oilers, joined the Rangers as well. Other ex-Oilers on the Blueshirts included trade deadline acquisitions Craig MacTavish (now Edmonton head coach) and Glenn Anderson. Brian Leetch and rookie Sergei Zubov were a solid 1-2 punch on defense. In fact, Zubov led the team in scoring that season with 89 points. Graves would set a team record with 52 goals, breaking the old record of 50 held by Vic Hadfield. This record would later be broken by Jaromir Jagr on April 8, 2006 against Boston.
"We know we are going to win Game Six and bring it back to the Garden,"he said[citation needed].
Halfway through the game the Rangers trailed 2-0 before Messier set up Alexei Kovalev late in the second period to bring them to within a goal of tying the game. In what is now considered one of the greatest individual performances in sports history, Messier delivered a hat trick in the third period to give the Rangers a 4-2 win and it sent the series to a decisive seventh game back at Madison Square Garden. In that seventh game a Leetch goal midway through the second period stood until Valeri Zelepukin tied the game for the Devils by stuffing the puck under Richter's pads with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation. It appeared once again that the Curse of 1940 would undo the Rangers. Surprisingly, Matteau's second overtime winner would clinch the series for the Blueshirts, coming at 4:24 in the second overtime period of Game 7. Rangers' announcer Howie Rose called the play in dramatic fashion shouting simply, "Matteau! Matteau! Matteau!"
The Stanley Cup Finals pitted the Rangers against the upstart Vancouver Canucks who were the seventh seed in the Western Conference. After dropping Game 1 in overtime 3-2, largely due to Canucks' goaltender Kirk McLean's 52-save performance, the Rangers came back to win the next three games to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. The Rangers lost Game 5 in New York and then Game 6 in Vancouver forcing another seventh game at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers wouldn't disappoint. Goals from Leetch, Graves and Messier sealed the seventh game with a 3-2 victory and the Rangers' first Cup in 54 years. Leetch became the first American-born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, the first non-Canadian to win it, and Messier became the first Rangers captain to hoist the Cup on Garden ice.
[edit] Recent years
The Rangers continued to be Cup favorites in the mid-to-late 1990s, even landing an aging Wayne Gretzky, but even with The Great One, they would fizzle out. Their 1994 stars were aging and many retired or dropped off in performance. After General Manager Neil Smith ran Messier, a former Oiler teammate of Gretzky's, out of town in the summer of 1997 and failed in a bid to replace him with Colorado Avalanche superstar Joe Sakic, the Rangers began a streak of seven seasons without making the playoffs, despite routinely having the highest payroll in the league.
In March 2000, Smith was fired along with head coach John Muckler, and that summer James Dolan hired Glen Sather to replace him. By 2001, the Rangers had landed a lot of star power. Theoren Fleury joined the Rangers after spending most of his career with the Calgary Flames, Eric Lindros joined the Rangers from the Philadelphia Flyers for blue-liner Kim Johnsson, and they acquired Pavel Bure late in the 2001-02 season from the Florida Panthers. It was the rookie season of goalie Dan Blackburn, who made the NHL All-Rookie Team despite the Rangers falling back to last-place status. Despite these high-priced acquisitions the Rangers still finished out of the playoffs. Later years saw other stars such as Alexei Kovalev, Jaromir Jagr, Anson Carter and Bobby Holik, as well as a growing Jamie Lundmark added, but in 2002-03 and 2003-04, the team again missed the playoffs. Blackburn started strongly in 02-03, but burned out after 17 games. He missed 03-04 due to mononucleosis and a damaged nerve in his left shoulder.
Towards the end of the 2003-04 season Sather finally gave in to a rebuilding process by trading away Leetch, Kovalev, and eight others for numerous prospects and draft picks. Bure, Messier and Blackburn are now retired and Lindros returned home to sign with the Maple Leafs prior to the start of the 2005-06 season. Leetch finished out the 03-04 season with Toronto and then played with Boston in the 05-06 season (in which he played his first game at Madison Square Garden since being traded in an emotional Ranger win).
The post-lockout Rangers, under new head coach Tom Renney, have seen the team move away from high-priced veterans towards a group of talented young players such as Petr Prucha, Dominic Moore and Blair Betts, but the focus of the team remains on veteran superstar Jaromir Jagr. The Rangers were expected to struggle during the 2005-06 season for their eighth consecutive season out of the postseason, but behind stellar performances by Swedish rookie goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, Martin Straka, Prucha and Jagr, the Rangers finished the season with their best record since 1993-94 (44-26-12).
Jaromir Jagr broke the Rangers' single season points record with a first-period assist in a 5-1 win against the New York Islanders on March 29, 2006. The assist gave him 110 points on the season, breaking Jean Ratelle's record. Less than two weeks later, on April 8, Jagr scored his 53rd goal of the season against the Boston Bruins, breaking the club record previously held by Adam Graves. Finally, on April 4 the Rangers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in a shootout 3-2 to clinch a playoff spot for the first time since the 1996-97 season. On April 19, the Rangers lost to the Ottawa Senators 5-1 and due to wins by division rivals New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers fell back to third place in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference to end the season. In the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals the Rangers drew a matchup with the Devs and were defeated in a four-game sweep. In the process they were outscored 17-4, as Jersey net minder Martin Brodeur took two shutouts and a 1.00 goals-against average to Lundqvist's 4.25. In the first game of the series Jagr suffered an undisclosed injury to his left shoulder, diminishing his usefulness as the series went on. Jagr missed game 2 of the series and was back in the lineup for game 3. He was held to 1 shot on net. On his first shift of the game in game 4, Jagr re-injured his shoulder and was unable to return.
Jagr failed to win his sixth Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion in 05-06 (the San Jose Sharks' Joe Thornton claimed the award, his first, with 125 points over "The Jaguar"'s 123) but he won his third Pearson Award (players' choice as outstanding player). He has thus tied Guy Lafleur in third, and needs one more to tie his ex-centerman, "Super Mario" Lemieux, in second and two more to tie Wayne Gretzky in first. Ironically, Jagr was playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins in "The Great One's" last NHL game.
[edit] References
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