Happy Anniversary Ranger Fans

I, unfortunately, was too young to appreciate it. I have no live memories of the game itself, but my family was living in chicago at the time, and my only memory is my dad screaming at the top of his lungs out the door into the neighborhood and jumping on the couch. Seeing my dad act like that was amusing at the time, but now I totally understand why he did.

our day was a few days ago. Lafayette hit the post, but it was a GREAT call by Rosen.

Time for some new history. Time for 1994 to fade into memory, and be replaced by the vision of Ryan Callahan hoisting it over his head in triumph, and then passing it to Henrik Lundqvist for his long-overdue victory lap with the Cup.

Not meaning to rain on nostalgic parades here, I am just tired of the Rangers not adding to their franchise total of Cups won…..

Happy anniversary to all. I was only 3 but my dad remembers every second of it. He’s still got the newspaper from the next day

Still get em every time- thanks
Tim

and I remember my dad woke me up to watch the last five minutes because he didn’t want me to not witness history…I can only imagine what it would have been like to have BSB during that finals run

the newspaper I work in was in NYC at the time, covering the Norwegian national team preparing for the soccer World cup. They couldn’t believe the NY papers were all filled with the Stanley cup stuff instead of the soccer…

I know, I know….

Congrats – may the day reappear sooner than later

Probably one of the perfect ages to be a fan for a team like the Rangers. I didn’t have any hockey background in my family, my own interest started a few seasons before, so I didn’t have the full torture of 1940 weighing me down. But I at least knew it was special because I remembered the upset of 92 and then the disaster of 93.

After the Canucks cut the lead down to 3-2, time felt like it was moving backwards. The memory of the Devils tying it late in game 7 of the ECF was still too fresh. The fact that they kept incorrectly whistling the Rangers for icing did not help matters.

I so wanted to go to the parade, but my parents had misgivings about letting a 14 year old kid from the suburbs going into city when they knew how much debauchery was probably going to take place. I still have the lockerroom t-shirt that I got from Footlocker.

Then of course it seemed like the hockey gods couldn’t let the Rangers fans feel too good about themselves. Over the summer Keenan bolted to go to the Blues and then the lockout was looming on the horizon. To top it off, the Devils won the next year and the Flyers put together the Legion of Doom line.

That game is at the top of my 5 favorite NY sports moments (that I was alive and watching)
2. Eli to Plaxico in SB XLII
3. Matteau
4. Scott Norwood – wide right – Giants win SB XXV
5. Charlie Hayes catches a foul pop over 3rd to kick off the Yankees 90s dynasty.

Apologies in advance for mentioning other random teams but I felt it was the best way to grasp the feeling of what a lifelong Ranger fan experienced in ’94…

I was fortunate enough to be old enough to enjoy the historic cup run. I had just got my own pair of skates and it was only a season earlier I became a Rangers fan (used to be a Kings fan, Gretzky) – in large part because they were always on TV and I was already a NY Giants fan.

While I celebrated the victory and enjoyed witnessing the madness, I didn’t truly get to appreciate it (I had only been a fan for 1 season). I didn’t understand what Ranger fans had been through all their lives and therefore almost took the victory for granted (hey, I’m a lifelong Lakers fan, too). The 1994 Rangers were my first favorite team of any sport to win a championship that I actually got to witness. Little did I know the hardships them and the fans went through.

It wasn’t until the NY Giants won the Superbowl against the Patriots that I got to truly enjoy my team winning it all. I witness the national beating the Ravens gave the Giants back in 2000 and honestly felt that I wouldn’t get to see Strahan hold the Lombardi trophy up high. I was wrong, and was grateful witness to the greatest upset in football history. In that moment alone I realized what it meant to be a fan of a team that has stuck it out from beginning to end… and in that moment, it made every agonizing misfortune of the past worth it.

I’m also a SF Giants fan (live in the area and have watched them since I can remember). A team who hadn’t won a series in SF and had waited 56 years since it’s last one (including a sweep over the cross water rivals) is enough torture combined for all my sports teams. However, when they pulled it off last fall (56 years in the making) I finally was able to experience the same kind of torture so many of you experienced leading up to 1994. In short, 2010 became a memory of a lifetime for me.

Im with Stepan the Ice a bit..for some reason the Matteu game 7 goal just gives me more goosebumps than anything i guess bc of how climactic it was and how i sat in my chair (i was 15 at the time) about to die every second especially when the puck just barely slid outside the net for the devils by Richter and its like they score my life is over so everything just exploded with elation with the Matteu goal and it was like thank God theres still a chance! And even tho it took 2 weeks before i truly believed Mess and the crew hoisting that cup wasnt just a dream it didnt have exactly the same fear of finality to it… VERY VERY close mind you, but not totally..but believe me i still did expect Vancouver to score with 7.7 seconds left just to wrench my heart out a little more lol

Oh and very nice write up Jim…I still cry strong man tears whenever i bust out my old videos lol

my grandfather speaks of it to me on occasion. but i think you had to be there to really understand how magical it was

ok now after reading this i had to pull out game 7 and pop it in..just heard bettman say “Well New York.. after 54 years..your long wait is over!” and my eyes got awfully swollen…

My birthday is a week from today and all I wanted for my birthday was for the Rangers to win the Stanley Cup. I was excited mom and dad where gonna let me stay up and watch the game even though I had school the next day (even though it was the 1st grade). I watched the game in bed with my “Real Ghostbusters” cartoon bed sheets. Good times great memories.

and i may well have either suffered a heart attack or killed myself if they’d lost seventeen years ago that’s how fanatical i was once upon a time

i was NOT excited the day of game seven, i was not looking forward to a great game, because all that mattered was winning, ending the curse, and shutting up every fucking islander fan i knew from ever uttering the words ‘1940’ again….except as a historical point of reference, as in “in 1940, winston churchill had that famous speech about blood toil tears & sweat”

i sold my soul to the devil that day, and i don’t really regret it at all, it still ranks as the greatest night of my life (my wedding day included, to my wife’s eternal rage)….i just wish to hell we could get another night close to that….

I wasn’t a hockey fan growing up — sure, I saw the Miracle on Ice when I was really young, but I’d be more likely to watch tennis or figure skating (and once upon a time baseball).

I did make a point of watching this game, though, and it was like an epiphany, of finally realizing what all the fans saw in it, why this was such an awesome sport.

I was so young.. I just turned two.. So I don’t really remember it.

I hope I have that moment in my lifetime.

My fondest memory of the night actually occurred when I got home from work and before John Amirante ever utterred a note. I walked into my living room to an overwhelming sight: every single piece of Ranger paraphernalia I owned including jerseys, T-shirts, sweatshirts, yearbooks, pucks, bumper stickers, hook rugs, photos, shot glasses, trinkets, etc. were strewn next to/on top of/in front of the TV. My well-intentioned wife (a life-long Bruins fan, mind you) thought that a shrine like this would help spur Mess & Co. on to victory in Game 7. She even had every one of her stuffed animals dressed in Ranger garb w/a Post-It Note on each one displaying a player’s name. How’s that for attention-to-detail? But, instead of appreciating her moving gesture and hard work, I was actually pissed and petrified at the same time thinking she had just jinxed the whole damn night. Remember, the “Ghosts of 1940” hadn’t been kicked to the Garden rafters just yet.

Boy, was I ever so ecstatic to be wrong that night! :)

At 10:58 PM, I joyously drank from the “1940”-engraved “Stanley Mug” that my best man had given me at our wedding with tears of joy and disbelief streaming down my face. While The Messiah, with Cup in hand, was telling his Dad in the MSG crowd, I was shaking my head thinking the same thing: “I just can’t believe it!”…Captain Mark Douglas Messier, born, reared and 5-time a Stanley Cup Champion in EDM was soooooo right. :)

To this day, I still have to re-re-re-watch the video highlights to convince myself the whole thing really did happen..“Now I – make that We – Can All Die in Peace” because “…this one will last a lifetime!”…Thank You!…Thank You!..Thank You!! :)

Great piece of writing Jim. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Messier, nice pass to Zubov, Zubov feeds Leetch! Leetch scores!