Eastern Conference final
The legendary 1994 series might have featured a prediction from the Messiah, but the 2012 teams want to create their own myths
The New York Rangers aren’t channelling Mark Messier heading into Game 6 with the New Jersey Devils.
NEW YORK — When Mark Messier made his guarantee, the tabloids paraphrased it — “WE’LL WIN TONIGHT” — in the biggest typeface they could find. And when he delivered, the headlines the next day blared like trumpets for a victorious hero, an emperor, a king. “BLESS THIS MESS” screamed one tabloid. “MESSIAH!” howled another.
We are back here, in a similarlooking place — the Devils leading the Rangers 3- 2 in the Eastern Conference final, heading back to New Jersey with a chance to play for the Stanley Cup. The two teams reached this very same place in 1994, and what happened after that has since passed into the realm of myth. It was a long time ago.
“I don’t see anything that is similar,” said Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, the only man from that series still playing. “I know if you guys look at it, it looks the same. But it’s different teams, and a different way of playing the game. That’s 18 years ago. That’s a long time. I know I’m feeling a lot different. I’m feeling a lot more appreciative of what’s going on.
“Before, the Rangers were a good team when they beat us. We were not supposed to compete with them at all in ‘ 94. They made these trades and they had all these big guys at the end, and they pulled it off in a dramatic way. But this time around, we feel we can play with them. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable going into these games coming up.”
Brodeur said the Devils did not hear about Messier’s guarantee until after Game 6; he allowed on Thursday that “if he really said it, it’s a pretty gutsy thing to do.”
“That’s what makes it great, you know?” Rangers forward Mike Rupp said. “I think that’s why we’re talking about it today.”
What Messier actually said was, “We’re going to go in and win Game 6. That was the focus this morning and it’s the way we feel right now. We’ve done that all year, we’ve won all the games we’ve had to win ... I know we’re going to go in and win Game 6 and bring it back here for Game 7 ... We’ve just got to win the hockey game. We know we have to win and we feel we can win and will win.”
And the papers called him Captain Courageous, and Messier scored his third- period hat trick, and the Rangers were on their way to the Stanley Cup. Dave Anderson, the Pulitzerwinning columnist for The New York Times, wrote “Only the great ones dare to dare.”
We are in a different age now, and no Ranger was willing to make a guarantee on Thursday, unless you count coach John Tortorella promising that goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and centre Brad Richards would play their best game in Game 6, today in Newark. Richards allowed that New York got its legs back in Game 5 after falling behind 3- 0, lending credence to the theory the Rangers were tired after playing backtoback seven- game series to begin the playoffs. He also said that when New York faced this scenario against Ottawa in the first round, they were not as ready for it.
“It was a tough day that day, leaving home and travelling to Ottawa, and you can just see the group is a lot looser today, going through the same situation,” Richards said. “And that’s how you grow. You build on everything you’ve done during your career, and the games you’ve played in, and we’ve been fortunate to get a lot of those games already.
“We haven’t really thought about ‘ 94. No disrespect to history, but we’re worried about ourselves. We want to create our own story, and that’s what we’re here to do.”
And he is right, of course. For the fans, and for the history of the game, what happened 18 years ago matters. For Brodeur, too, who admitted at the start of this series how much that loss hurt, and how it made both him and the Devils grow toward their own eventual championships. But for the rest of the players, as Rangers backup Martin Biron put it in French, “Le passe est le passe.”
“In ‘ 94,” Devils coach Pete Deboer said, “I still had hair.”
This is not about the headlines bellowing about guarantees, or being called Captain Courageous. This is about the headlines that come afterwards, and whose name might be added to the mythology of one of these franchises. Rupp scored the Cup- winning goal for the Devils in 2003. He knows what it feels like.
“It’s something that I’ve always said that you don’t fully appreciate ‘ till you’re done playing,” he said.
“Right now I’m on the flip side of that rivalry, and we can create those moments even now. That’s what Game 6 provides, is the chance to do that.
“That’s what’s awesome about this time of year, is it doesn’t matter where you are, whether you’re on the first line or fourth line ... someone’s going to come through and be a hero for some team. Those are things that people will remember. In ‘ 94, that was a great moment in this city and in this franchise, and there’s those moments all the time, every year, for particular franchises, in big games. It’s a chance for all of us to be that guy.”
The New York Rangers went on to beat the New Jersey Devils in Game 7 in 1994, in double overtime, on Stephane Matteau’s wraparound that banked in off a defenceman’s skate. The reporters covering the series remember the deep silence in New Jersey’s lockerroom afterwards; Bernie Nicholls, the guy nothing ever got to, was weeping at his stall. So was Claude Lemieux. Brodeur was 22, with his whole hockey life in front of him, and as he left the ice there were tears rolling down his cheeks.
Madison Square Garden has been chanting Matteau’s name at Brodeur ever since. That is what this is about; the chance to be a hero, the chance to have your name live on, and yes, the chance to weep.