1994. It was the year the Major League Baseball Player's Association went on strike. It was the year USA held the FIFA Men's World Cup. It was the year that the creator of Eves, an Eevee doll that sits on my desk and serves as my avatar in several places, was born. And that Spring, it was the year that two NY teams, the Rangers of the NHL and the Knicks of the NBA made runs for their respective championships, both eventually reaching the Finals. Something that can realistically happen again 30 years later. As I'm typing this, both teams are in the 2nd round of their respective playoffs, both leading their series. Could it be possible that after 30 years we may see Madison Square Garden hosting both the Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA Finals? If you believe in odd coincidences, then the answer is yes. In 1994 and 2024, OJ Simpson was in the news, there was an earthquake in the area, there was a solar eclipse happening in the US, and the Rangers finished 1st in the NHL and the Knicks finished 2nd in the East. But what were the teams like back then, and how do they compare to today? Lemme break it down for y'all, starting with the Rangers.
At the start of the 1993-94 season, the New York Rangers hadn't won the Stanley Cup since 1940. The 54-year gap was at the time the longest championship drought in the NHL before being eclipsed by the Toronto Maple Leafs, which thanks to yet another Game 7 loss to the Bruins expands another year. Everything seemed to click for the Rangers that year. Adam Graves set the franchise record for goals in a season, Mike Ritcher was named MVP at the All-Star Game (held at MSG to boot), the team didn't have any shutout losses in the regular season, and finished said regular season with the best overall record in the league with a 52–24–8 line for 112 points, which were both franchise highs at the time. The playoffs started the way many expected it to start, with an absolute thrashing of the New York Islanders in 4 games outscoring them 22-3 in the process. The semifinals of the Eastern Conference saw them take on the Washington Capitals, who managed to avoid being swept themselves winning Game 4 of the series, but still going down to the Rangers in 5. The Conference Finals saw the Rangers go up against their other city area rivals, the New Jersey Devils, who had an up-and-coming star in the form of goaltender Martin Brodeur. The Devils would win the first game of the series in double overtime, before the Rangers bounced back to win the next 2 games, the 2nd win being done in double overtime. The Devils however would not go down without a fight, winning games 4 and 5, putting the Rangers most successful season in danger of ending without another championship. Captain Mark Messier guaranteed that the Rangers would win Game 6 and send the series back to MSG, and he made sure that would happen by scoring a hat trick to force a Game 7. Leading 1-0, it looked as if the Rangers were back in the Stanley Cup Finals before Valeri Zelepukin scored with 7.7 seconds remaining. The game would eventually go to, you guessed it, double overtime where mid-season acquisition Stephane Matteau scored on a wrap-around shot, leading the Howie Rose's famous "MATTAEU! MATTAEU! MATTAEU!" call as the Rangers have won the East, and now had to face an opponent many wouldn't have expected to win the West, the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver would win Game 1 in overtime (guess the Rangers were sick of the double variety) before the Rangers won the next 3. With 2 chances to end the series, the Rangers failed to break the 54-year drought with Vancouver forcing a Game 7. With 1.6 seconds left remaining leading 3-2, the MSG crowd was ready to go crazy a 2nd time (they thought the game was already over before an icing call delayed the celebration), and after the puck was dropped and the Rangers nullified the Canucks having any chances to score a quick goal, Sam Rosen got to exclaimed "The waiting is over! The New York Rangers are the Stanley Cup champions! And this one will last a lifetime!"
Since ending the drought, another one has started. The Rangers have made it to the Conference Finals many times during that time, and even making it to Cup Finals in 2014. Much like in the 1993-94 season, everything seemed to click for the Rangers for the 2023-24 season. Artemi Panarin, who has been one of the best free agent signings in franchise history, set new personal marks scoring 49 goals and 120 points total, just 4 points shy of the franchise record set by Jaromir Jagr (and if you wanna know how competitive the league has gotten, a season like this would've easily been an MVP-winning season. He's expected to fall short of being a finalist.) Veteran goalie Jonathan Quick showed no signs of aging as he proved to be an effective backup to Igor Shesterkin. Alexis Lafreniere, a former #1 pick who many claimed to be a major bust, finally got to have time on the top lines and showed what he's capable of. All that and more led the Rangers finishing with the best overall record in the league with a 55-23-4 line for 114, setting the marks for both wins and points. The playoffs started the way many expected it to start, with a 4-game sweep of the Washington Capitals. While not the thrashing the 94 Rangers gave the Islanders, it was still considered a one-sided matchup. As of this writing, they're against the Carolina Hurricanes who, despite being 2nd in the division to the Rangers for a majority of the season, were pegged as the favorites between the two. So that's where the Rangers are at right now. How about their NBA counterpart, the Knicks?
For a few years prior to the 1993-94 season, the Knicks were a fairly good team, led by Patrick Ewing who, I'm gonna be honest, got me into sports simply because he had the same first name as me. The Knicks were one of the best teams during the regular season, even grabbing the 1-seed the year prior. It's just that, come playoff time, the East was basically owned by the same 2 teams: The Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls. The Pistons dominated the late 80s though they couldn't finish the job in the NBA Finals, and the Bulls dominated the early 90s, 3-peating with Michael Jordan at the helm. With the Pistons out of it for a while and the Bulls without Jordan, the East suddenly felt up for grabs. Led by the likes of Ewing, Charles Oakley, John Starks, Anthony Mason and more, the Knicks finished 2nd in the East, although they shared the same record as the conference-leading Atlanta Hawks. The Knicks opened their run with a 3-1 series(the quarterfinals were best of 5 back then) win over the then New Jersey Nets, and meeting one of their playoff banes in the semifinals, managed to beat the Bulls in 7 games to advance to the conference finals. The Hawks meanwhile would actually suffer an upset in their semifinals matchup against the Indiana Pacers, led by Reggie Miller. The Pacers/Knicks Eastern Finals would be one to remember as the Knicks managed to pull off the series win in 7 to advance to the NBA finals against the Houston Rockets. Game 5 of the Finals, which happened the same day as the Rangers victory parade and the OJ Simpsons Ford Bronco chase, saw the Knicks take a 3-2 series lead, setting up a potential double championship for NYC. Unfortunatly, the Rockets managed to outplay the Knicks in games 6 and 7, taking the title and denying the Knicks their first championship since the 72-73 season.
Since making it to the Finals in 1994, the Knicks had only made 1 trip to the Finals, a miracle run in the shortened 98-99 season that saw them on the losing end of the up-and-coming San Antonio Spurs. For a majority of the years since, the Knicks were without question the joke of the NBA, having a good season once-in-a-while before falling back into the basement of the standings. However things seem to have taken a turn for the better in the last few years for the Knickerbockers. First led by Julius Randle and later by Jalen Brunson due to a season-ending injury to Randle, the Knicks look to have built themselves a respectable team with playmakers and a reliable bench. Contributions by Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, Isaiah Hartenstein, Mitchell Robinson, mid-season acquisition OG Anunoby and the rest of the bench when the coach actually goes to them all pulled together to get the Knicks the 2nd seed in the East with a 50-32 record. And if you wanna know how dominate the top seeded Boston Celtics were compared to the rest of the East, considered this: The Knicks were 14 games behind the Celtics to finish 2nd best in the East. The Thunder and Nuggets, who finished the top of the West with matching records, were 11 games ahead of the 9th and 10th best teams in their conference. For finishing 2nd, the Knicks got to take on the winner of the winner's side of the play-in tournament, division rival Philadelphia 76ers. It was an ugly series to say the least, and the Knicks being up by 6 with less than 30 seconds to go in a game that could've sent them to the next round, managed to lose the game in OT. That had me thinking this team was gonna be the same old Knicks and eventually end with them choking away the series. They managed to win Game 6 to advance to the Eastern semis against the Indiana Pacers, with the media constantly bringing up all their previous battles these last few decades. Usually, I would root against the Knicks feeling that they, along with their fanbase, don't deserve the success they have. But you know what? Screw it. Consider me on the bandwagon.
So that's where we are right now. If you believe in coincidences, then the Rangers and Knicks will be making their respective Finals. Realistically though? It'll be a tough climb for the both of them. For the Rangers, even if they manage to weather the storm against the Hurricanes (pun intended), they'll have to deal with either the Boston Bruins or the Florida Panthers, both teams tough opponents in their own way. And if they manage to win to East, any team that comes out of the West will prove formidable against them. Really, it's not often you see a field like this and say that neither team doesn't deserve the be the champs. Right now the offense of the Rangers have been constantly lighting the lamp and the defense has stepped up whenever it's asked of them to do so, but I highly doubt they'll be able to keep that momentum going the entire way without a cold streak. Just need to hope that when it eventually happens, they'll snap out of it and be a force to reckon with again. Meanwhile, I think the Knicks' strategy of playing their starters nearly the entire game is not exactly one that'll benefit them in the long run, especially with a team like the Celtics, who'll more than likely make the other half of the East Final. A lot of the games also have had a lot of questionable calls going to both teams so the Knicks will have to hope on being the ones on the right side of those, especially in tight contests, which all their games have been so far. Regardless, each of these runs should be fun to watch until, you know, they're not. Hopefully this will end with at least one of these teams getting to have a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. And if not, well, at least the Yankees are having a good start to their season. Just gotta keep that up for, what, 5 more months and then they gotta avoid playing Houston again in the playoffs? Hope for the best, I guess...
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