Random Recaps: Rangers vs. Islanders | Nov. 8, 2001

In Random Recaps, we're getting back into the swing of recapping Rangers games for the upcoming 2025-25 season by taking a look back at random Rangers games from the past. To read more of these, go here.

I’m sure many folks can probably guess which game this is just by looking at the matchup and the year. However, for anyone who either wasn’t watching this team 24 years ago or might have forgotten, this was an insane game. I’m sure I may have watched it live as a child, but I have more clear memories of rewatching this game on a VHS tape that my family recorded given all of the shenanigans. 

Shocker: the Rangers gave up an early goal 121 seconds into the game, as Alexei Yashin snuck a backhander past Mike Richter to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. Fun fact: Both players who assisted on that goal were one time Rangers in Brad Isbister and Roman Hamrlik. Isbister played 34 games with Hartford and 19 with the Rangers in the 2006-07 season, and Hamrlik played the last twelve games of his almost 1,400 game career in New York in 2013. Yet another example of talented players coming to New York well past their prime.

Closer to the midway point of the first, Theo Fleury put the Rangers on the board with a wrister to tie it up 1-1. Although, the goal would not be the most memorable moment Fleury had in this game. Not even a full minute later, Brian Leetch gave the Rangers their first lead of the night on an unassisted goal, and just 27 seconds after that it was a 3-1 game thanks to the fourth line. Again, this goal would be far from the most memorable contribution from that line on this night. 

Long before the days of Matt Rempe and Ryan Reaves, even before Tanner Glass and Brandon Prust, the Rangers had some serious enforcers in their lineup, some of which were staples to these dark ages Rangers teams, including fan-favorite Sandy McCarthy. Seconds before he made it a 3-1 game for the Rangers, he was trying to fight Eric Cairns, who would not drop the gloves despite McCarthy's persistence. While McCarthy was shaking the gloves at him in an attempt to get him to go, Steve Webb on the Islanders was shoving McCarthy every chance he got. Eventually, the Islanders turned the puck over, giving Steve McKenna a partial breakaway. Chris Osgood made the initial save but McCarthy was able to crash the net and cash in on the rebound.

Then the chaos ensued. Cairns, who refused to fight McCarthy, ended up cross checking him in the face in the midst of celebrating his goal. This led to McKenna throwing the gloves off and going after Cairns, leaving McCarthy with a very undersized Jason Blake–yes, that is father of now current NHLer Jackson Blake. Webb, who was eager to get into the action, was paired off with Dave Karpa but eventually got a piece of McCarthy while the officials were trying to decide on penalty allocations. Webb got right into McCarthy’s face along the Rangers bench which resulted in a couple blows from McCarthy before giving Webb the “talking” motion with his glove still on. 

The most memorable part of all this is while the officials were still determining penalties, Theo Fleury—who is arguably one of the biggest agitators of all time—had an ear-to-ear smile on his face, chirping away at Cairns, who was now in the penalty box. To which Fleury began to do a chicken dance from the Rangers bench, suggesting Cairns was a chicken for not fighting McCarthy in the first place. Fleury wasn’t the only one with a gesture to Cairns, as McCarthy would flex at him from the bench while continuing to make talking gestures with his hand. 

If this is the first time you're hearing about this game, I strongly encourage you to catch the highlights here. What a different world this game was just two-and-a-half decades ago.

Also, if you make it to the end of that clip, you will also see a very young, now former friend of the Rangers—Peter Laviolette—behind the Islanders bench! 

Shortly after play continued, Bryan Berard was called for interference in a game that would go on to have a total of 90 combined penalty minutes from both sides.

The Islanders came into the second period with some rejuvenated spirits as Mark Parrish brought them within one on a wrap-around goal with assists to Yashin and a great candidate for “name a random athlete,” Mariusz Czerkawski. Sadly, no Rangers affiliations that I can think of there.

Now a couple of fun facts before we continue with the game. For starters, this was obviously before the days of Joe Micheletti as Sam Rosen’s partner in the broadcast booth as John Davidson was still there. Although, Joe was indeed around and working this game as an ice level reporter, during which he made note on the broadcast that none other than legendary Team USA Olympic coach Herb Brooks was in attendance for this game as he was doing some scouting for the 2002 Olympics. One of the players he surely had his eye on was Rangers’ netminder Mike Richter, who definitely impressed by stopping all but two of 39 shots on goal from the Islanders. Richter would be one of three Rangers to crack that ‘02 roster, alongside Brian Leetch and a personal favorite of mine, Mike York. Other one-time Rangers on that Olympic team included Doug Weight, Tony Amonte, Chris Drury, Tom Poti, and Mike Dunham, as well as one-time Rangers assistant coach Phil Housley.  

The Rangers were on the power play approaching the midway point of the game and on the breakout, the middle of the ice opened up significantly for Radek Dvorak. Dvorak, who spent four years with the Rangers and had his career best season in 2001 with 67 points, used his speed, came in all alone on Osgood, and ripped a slap shot past him to make it a 4-2 game. A former tenth overall draft pick by the Florida Panthers, Dvorak went on to play in 1,260 games with 590 total points. He wasn’t the best Ranger and was only around for a small part of his career but he was a real fun one to watch in those early 2000s’ years. 

Dvorak would go on to assist on a Mark Messier goal that came just five minutes into the third period to make it a 5-2 game. Eric Lindros would score an unassisted goal later in the period to seal the deal at 6-2 but the action was far from over. Cairns and McCarthy would tangle up again with about four minutes to go resulting in Cairns getting tossed and matching roughing penalties to add to the tally.

This game certainly isn't a glorious display of the talent behind the game, but if old time hockey and fights are your thing, this is about as entertaining of a game as you could ask for. The lines were a bit all over the place as the Rangers went 11-7 that night but they looked something like this:

York - Lindros - Fleury
Johansson - Messier - Dvorak
Ciger - Lindros - Samuelsson
Toms - McKenna - McCarthy

Malakhov - Leetch
Kloucek - Berard
Ulanov - Karpa
Purinton

Richter - Blackburn

Zdeno Ciger was a name I had completely forgotten about prior to rewatching this game. A 3rd round draft pick (54th overall) in 1988, Ciger spent the majority of his NHL days split between the New Jersey Devils and the Edmonton Oilers. Following a two year stint in Slovakia, Ciger attempted to return to the NHL with the Rangers, collecting six goals and seven assists in 29 games played. He was later sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Matthew Barnaby and ended up returning to Slovakia the following season where he carried out his career.

When I think about that season and consequently this game, it was really that fourth line that stands out. Sandy McCarthy in particular was a fan favorite in New York and would win the Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award that year. A former third round pick (52nd overall) in 1991, McCarthy had a very respectable NHL career as an enforcer, playing in 736 games with 148 points.

Steven McKenna is an interesting story. An undrafted defenseman-turned-forward, McKenna was 6-8, 255 pounds, and played in 373 NHL games with a total of 32 points. Three of which, came in his one season with the Rangers in 2001-02. Jeff Toms was another sizable one hit wonder and former 9th round draft pick by the Devils in 1992. 236 career games, 55 points with his career best season (11 points) happening in his one year in New York. What a trio.

The 2001-02 season was certainly a trying one for the Rangers for a number of reasons. For starters, the season began shortly after 9/11. Just nine days later, the Rangers were playing the Philadelphia Flyers in a preseason game that was tied 2-2 and would not be played to completion. The game was stopped as a message from President George W. Bush regarding the attacks played on the jumbotron and the game would not resume afterwards.

The Rangers would officially open the season just weeks later on home ice against the Buffalo Sabres. The home opener that year would also become the first game at MSG after 9/11. As a result, that game had a much higher meaning than any normal hockey game and if you're looking to gain a further perspective on that, I highly encourage you to check out this video from the Buffalo Sabres reflecting on what that game meant from both teams.

The Rangers won that game but would struggle to win consistently throughout the season as they ended up finishing 36-38-4-4, fourth in their division and 11th in the Eastern Conference as a whole. It was the first season after trading Adam Graves and the first after acquiring Eric Lindros. They made a big splash acquiring Pavel Bure at the trade deadline and also took a (bad) gamble sending Mike York to Edmonton for Rem Murray and Tom Poti.

We refer to the late 90s', early 00s' seasons as the Dark Ages for a reason and despite entertaining games like that November night against the Islanders, it was tough times in Rangerstown to say the least.