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If the game had been played on June 13 instead of June 14, the last 25 years might have been completely different.
But a quarter of a century later, the Rangers and their fans are returning to the seventh game of the 1994 Stanley Cup final as the day The Curse was broken, the moment when 54-year-old championship ended. But without this second day, an extra day off the defeat of Match 6 in Vancouver – which followed a 5-game loss to the backyard – caused the 3-1 lead of the series to evaporate – things might not have worked that way.
"I think momentum still plays a big role in the playoffs," Mark Messier, captain of the Rangers team, told La Poste. "I just think it gave us a chance to reset. I think we all agreed that it was best to stay at home and absorb everything, not try to divert the energy that was happening to us and use it to our advantage . And I think that's what we did, and it helped.
Adam Graves particularly remembered the good weather that he was doing that day and the palpable energy in the city, with the NBA Finals Knicks, who also took a day off between the third and fourth games of their series against the Rockets.
"No matter where you go, whether you wake up for coffee or stop for gas in the car, energy was at the forefront of everyone's mind," he said. Graves. "You just felt that everyone was behind you. You have just experienced a wave of energy and support that I have never experienced before. "
The Rangers were able to relax during this day, regroup after consecutive losses and refocus on the task at hand. They knew that the story was going to be written with this last game of the season and that it was going to define them as a team. It was a moment that the entire organization, as well as the suffering fan base, had been imagining for more than half a century. They would either live up to the situation or fade like so many teams before them.
"That's what you do as a kid in the driveway. Match 7, at the last minute, you have the puck on your stick, "said Mike Richter. "It's spectacular. These are the kinds of things you live as a fan and you prepare for your whole life as a player. "
The regular season was already busy with the Rangers winning the Presidents' Trophy for the league's best record. Brian Leetch was arguably the best defender in the league. Graves had set a franchise record of scoring 52 goals, goalie Richter was a star player with his acrobatics in the net and Messier was the undisputed leader after coming three years earlier after five Stanley Cup wins in Edmonton.
"The mood, the culture and the reason we were there changed when Mark came in 1991," said Graves. "Before, it was like," Oh, we do not really want to talk about the Cup and what happened. "We play and we try to win, but he came in and said," No, we're here for one reason and for one reason only, and that's to win. "That completely changed the mindset . "
Once in the playoffs, the Rangers swept the Islanders in the first round by a total score of 22-3, then lost a single game against the Capitals in the second round. This was the final epic of the Eastern Conference against the Devils, which was highlighted by Messier's "guarantee" of victory before the sixth game, when he managed a hat.
"The extent of what I was saying was way below what I was trying to convey to the team," Messier said. "At this point, all the cards are on the table. Everything was wide open. This restored the confidence we had shown all year. The fact of not winning did not distract us at that time. It was too big at this point.
"Personally, I did not really care."
Stephane Matteau then scored in double overtime in the seventh game, allowing Howie Rose to turn his last name into a triplet, sending the Blues Shirts to the Cup final, where the Canucks were waiting with Pavel Bure and Trevor Linden. in front, and Kirk McLean in the nets. The Rangers quickly took a 3-1 lead, which included Richter's signature Bure stop on a penalty shot in Game 4 in Vancouver on June 7.
"There are always those things that define a game or a series," said Richter. "It was a great moment."
The presence of the Stanley Cup was then needed in the garden for the fifth game, causing all the pressure and anxiety of the story. The Blueshirts did not play well, lost 6-3, then crossed the continent to lose the sixth game in Vancouver, 4-1. Feelings of missed opportunity began to develop.
"I suppose the return flight from Vancouver was done," said Leetch. "We missed a couple of chances to win the Cup, so now we have to go back to New York and play, so it was not like we could not wait to be back.
"But after the two-day break, that's where the optimism came back."
Leetch also recalled that the team had read the papers and found that the Canucks were openly talking about the difficulty of trying to beat a team three times in the playoffs – and especially to win three games at the Garden.
"You knew that they felt the pressure of being in that position to win the Cup," said Leetch, "and that they must do it on the road".
At the beginning of the seventh match, the energy of the city had raised all the excitement in the garden, and the national anthem sung by John Amirante was the one of all time.
"I loved listening to it singing the national anthem and what a great tradition it was," said Graves about Amirante, who died in April 2018. "But this night there, it was like he was doing lip sync. You could not hear it. You could not hear.
"And then you're on the ice and you have" New York, New York ", from Frank Sinatra, with [the fans chanting] "We want the cup!" These were only bananas. "
At 11:02 of the first period, Leetch scored his 11th playoff goal from an acute angle to bring him down to 1-0. Graves added a power play at 14:45 to take a 2-0 lead in the second period.
But Linden scored his first of two goals of the night, shorthanded, to take the score to 2-1 early in the second period. Shortly after, Messier was credited with a goal that he might not have touched to take a 3-1 lead in the third, before Linden again scored in advantage Digital at 4:50 to reduce the lead to 3-2. Vancouver striker Martin Gelinas then hit the outside of the post to try to tie the game. The memory of this match – with Richter diving and losing his glove – is still visible in Leetch. Richter, in a way, did not seem baffled by that.
"Sometimes you shake your head and go away:" I was nowhere near there. I felt good, I was in the right place, "said Richter. "But look, sometimes these things are good because it keeps you focused."
It seems that the game clock slowed slowly over the last two minutes as the Rangers were forced to make three face-offs on their own. The famous garden ceiling threatened to fly away with the rising of tension. A defrost was called with 1.1 seconds remaining and officials took a little time to pick up the toilet paper on the ice and reset the stopwatch to 1.6 seconds.
"After 54 years," said Graves laughingly, "it's the only way this could have ended."
Rangers coach Mike Keenan sent veteran helmet-less Craig MacTavish for the final faceoff. When he took it back, the longtime voice of television, Sam Rosen, unveiled his iconic phrase: "This one will last a lifetime!"
"You can feel that this energy is beginning to exhaust and relieve you that you have reached the goal you have set for yourself, you have to do it in New York," said Leetch. "Then it's just a vertigo."
The party started in the garden. Leetch had won the Conn Smythe Trophy after three months of spectacular hockey and by the time he finished his interviews and had returned to the locker room, it was a zoo. So he went straight to the coach's room.
"With all my equipment," he says, "stay seated and drink a beer."
Finally, everyone was emptied, the players took a shower and met family and friends for a reception at Play by Play inside the garden. Richter assumed that they would not have left before 2 am, but the crew and the cut finally went to the Upper East Side in a bar owned by a friend named The Auction House. The NYPD closed 89th Street between first and second avenue and many people partied until sunrise. Leetch was not one of them.
"I told my parents: I'm going back to bed. I have to go to sleep a bit, "he says. "So, actually, I went back to my apartment and went back to sleep. Then I woke up the next morning as if it was Christmas morning. I do not think I slept for a few weeks after that. "
Players spent a good part of the next 25 years, especially Messier, Graves, Leetch and Richter, figuring out how much they mattered to many fans. People stop to thank them on the street, at airports, at events across the country, such as the one they will attend all four at iPlay America in Freehold, New Jersey on the 30th. June. The fans want to share their experience of this one. game, this moment when the Rangers finally won.
More importantly, players on this team know they have not won the Stanley Cup for themselves, but for all those who care about this team for decades and generations of fans. It's a victory that has begun to appear a long time ago now that it's the only championship of the organization since 1940, but it's a victory that still resonates deeply.
"It was special because the Cup was the symbol of such a love for this jersey," said Graves. "Not just for those of us who have all been lucky enough to play, but I think for everyone in the building and for the Rangers fans."
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