WE HATE THE KINGS! (sortof)
The Rangers and Kings are not exactly hockey royalty, despite all the pomp and circumstance. The Rangers have captured exactly one Stanley Cup in the last 74 years, making them the worst pro team in the entire New York region (the Jets and Red Bulls could argue the point). The Kings have won just one Cup in 46 years, since their unfortunate invention. In the land of the Lakers and Dodgers, that’s not nearly enough.
The Rangers and Kings are so bad, in fact, they both somehow failed to win a title while Wayne Gretzky was on their rosters. As the Edmonton Oilers proved, that’s not easy to do.
The Kings nearly went bankrupt in 1993, when owner Bruce McNall defaulted on a loan. And McNall was the guy who basically installed Gary Bettman as NHL commissioner.
In March 1996, the two teams were involved in one of the larger trades in NHL history: Marty McSorley, Shane Churla and Jari Kurri to the Rangers for Ian Laperriere, Mattias Norstrom, Nathan LaFayette, Ray Ferraro and a fourth-round draft pick. The deal did no great good for either club.
From 2003 through 2009, the Kings failed to make the playoffs. The Rangers didn’t notice, because they didn’t qualify f rom 1998 through 2005. The only difference is that the Kings actually demoted their GM at the time, Dave Taylor, while the Rangers kept theirs, Glen Sather. Now, after 14 years, Sather is a genius, because even stopped clocks are right twice a day.
It’s not as if these cities produced a bunch of great homemade players, either, unless you’re a big Nick Fotiu fan.
So no, the histories are not glorious. There’s another problem, too: Los Angeles and New York may be the biggest markets around, but they aren’t exactly archrivals. This isn’t New York-Boston, New York-Philly, or L.A-San Francisco. Outside of the 2002 WNBA Finals between the Liberty and the Sparks, these bi-coastal cities haven’t played each other for a title in any pro sport since the Dodgers and Yankees met in 1981. That happens to be the same year the Rangers and Kings last faced each other in the playoffs — a first-round, preliminary series.
As Brad Richards put it, “This is two brand-new teams playing each other who haven’t played each other much.” Go get red-faced about that. But it is our job, as a rabble-rousing tabloid, to make this sound like a blood feud. So here goes. We hate the Kings because:
They stole Henrik Lundqvist’s nickname. They’ll probably claim they had it first, but don’t listen. They have a guy named King to make it worse.
Their top scorer in these playoffs used to be the Rangers’ top scorer, another poaching job. They rescued Marian Gaborik from Columbus, where he was specifically exiled forever by John Tortorella.
They play at Staples Center, where the Lakers play. We hate the Lakers, for real.
They kept Marcel Dionne until he was almost spent, then sent him to the Rangers.
Their city’s smog wafts toward the Eastern Conference.
Their roster sounds like a typing exam: The Quick Brown Muzzin jumped over the lazy King Voynov.
They won more Game 7s this spring than the Rangers, just so they could claim to be even more clutch.
Jonathan Quick didn’t win the gold medal for the U.S. in Sochi. What kind of American does that make him?
The Rangers and Kings had a bench-clearing brawl in Game 2 of the 1981 playoffs, which included our guy, Fotiu, and Ron Duguay. While that was quite long ago, the Garden still holds a grudge against Denis Potvin. Why not Rick Chartraw? By the way, there was once a regiment known as the King’s Rangers during the Revolutionary War. It fought on the wrong side, for the Brits. Just another reason why these two teams must never get along.