A Ride To Remember

Adam Graves admitted afterwards, "We got a lot of bounces along the way. as Messier said, "They talk about the ghosts and dragons. You can't be afraid to slay the dragon. We're going to celebrate like we've never celebrated anything in our lives."

Did you know that Adam appeared in two TV shows ? Link below. http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-26494

1994 It Was a Ride to Remember Rangers' road to the Cup had bumps along the way but ended in sheer ecstasy

By Laura Price Staff Writer June 16, 1994

THE MEMORY of June 14, 1994, will dance and fizz in the heads of New Yorkers for generations, like the champagne that was popped and guzzled by fans and players alike the night the Rangers won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 54 years.

Nothing will ever compare to that sultry night on Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street, where an incredible journey ended and a new era began for the Rangers. The 1993-94 championship season commenced across the Atlantic Ocean and concluded, rightfully, back home at Madison Square Garden. The thousands of miles in between were filled with personal triumphs, personnel changes and one mission.

Mike Keenan, the ice-chewing coach with a reputation for whipping players into shape, swaggered into town after stays with the Flyers and Blackhawks and affixed his icy stare on a group of humbled hockey players who hadn't even made the playoffs a season earlier. He told them that the mission would be to win the Stanley Cup. Period. He hung a portrait of the Cup in the locker room at Rye Playland and illuminated it with spotlights, a constant reminder.

"I remember in the hotel room when we signed Mike in Toronto last year," Garden president Bob Gutkowski said. "We said, `We're bringing you to New York not just to give us back the respect off the bad year we had, but we're bringing you in because we think you can win the Stanley Cup for us.' And he did."

There is no denying Keenan's presence. He is intense, volatile, a student of psychology, the living embodiment of Pat Riley's book, "The Winner Within," which Keenan keeps on a shelf.

But this is not only Keenan's Cup. It belongs to general manager Neil Smith, the man who spent five years building the team and ultimately pulled the trigger on the March 21 trades that completed the Rangers' puzzle. It belongs to Mark Messier, whose leadership on the ice will be identified for decades with his Called Shot and subsequent hat trick that staved off elimination in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New Jersey Devils.

"When we didn't make the playoffs last year, he could have made $100 million, and it wouldn't have satisfied him. He wanted to deliver a Cup to New York," Kevin Lowe said. "He was in tears after last season. There's no hockey player in the game who could withstand the pressure he's had in the last three years and deliver."

The Cup belongs to Mike Richter, the goaltender who overcame a fragile psyche and lifted his game to the top, winning a league-high 42 games after spending time in the minors a season ago. "That's one of the stories within the story," Keenan said. "His team believed in him, and he believed in this team."

It belongs to Brian Leetch, who fought back from last season's debilitating shoulder and ankle injuries and whose balletic skating, scoring ability and tenacious defense won him the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. "He's controlling the game like the greats," Messier once said. It was Leetch who received President Bill Clinton's congratulatory call.

"Was that Dana Carvey?" he asked.He had the wrong impersonator.

The Stanley Cup also is for Adam Graves, the club-record 52-goal scorer and future captain who ended a finals drought with his first-period wrist shot Wednesday night. It is for Alexei Kovalev. The young Russian went from selfish right wing to dazzling center and helped lead his team in the playoffs with nine goals and 12 assists. His countryman, Sergei Zubov, emerged as a surprising force on the power play and finished the regular season with 12 goals and 77 assists, a team high. The Cup is every bit a part of coaches Colin Campbell and Dick Todd, the trainers, and all those Rangers who mucked in the corners and absorbed the hits. Jay Wells, the tough-as-nails defenseman with a gentle demeanor, is 35 years old. He's had his nose broken and his teeth knocked out for 15 years, but he never wanted to touch the Cup until he earned it.

"I had no idea what to do with it," Wells said.

Finally, this Cup belongs to those long-suffering Rangers fans who will line the parade route tomorrow from Battery Park to City Hall. During the ride home on the Long Island Railroad run to Lynbrook the other night, some chanted and whooped. Others sat in their seats, drained. "We just won the Stanley Cup," they said, smiling.

It was time to think about the 1993-94 season, the ultimate ride.

In September, the Rangers flew to London with a new coach and renewed hope that their last-place finish in the Patrick Division could be purged from their memories. They beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in two exhibition games, and the beginning looked promising.

Then, after the Rangers suffered an embarrassing home loss to the expansion Mighty Ducks, came the Oct. 21 practice session in which Keenan broke a stick over the crossbar. He sent his players off the ice to think about it. The next night, they lost again, 4-1, to the Lightning in St. Petersburg and once again things appeared dismal. The Rangers were 4-5-0.

After the game, Keenan fumed, his signature white shirt rumpled. "People in New York are expecting us to win," he said.

What happened next turned the Rangers around for good. Wayne Gretzky and the Kings came to the Garden on Oct. 24. At 5:43 of the third, Esa Tikkanen blasted a slap shot, top shelf, past goalie Kelly Hrudey for the game-winner. The Finn dropped to one knee and pumped his arm again and again. Richter, who started the season 0-4, won his first game since March 22, 1993, and the Rangers would not lose another until Nov. 27 at Nassau Coliseum.

The Streak was 12-0-2, and the Rangers launched into first place overall, a position they would not relinquish the rest of the season. After the Kings game, Richter went 17-0-3 through Dec. 19, breaking Davey Kerr's 19-game unbeaten streak set in 1939-1940. The cosmos realigned, and the Rangers turned into contenders.

"When we put together that good winning streak, when Mike Richter set the record and records started to fall, and there was all the attention such as: "Not since 1940 has that been done,' " Doug Lidster said. "Those types of things got you stirred."

The Rangers cruised along through the All-Star Game in New York, with a league-high four players representing the Eastern Conference. MVP Richter won a pickup truck for stopping Vancouver's Pavel Bure on six breakaways during the second period.

But nothing ever falls into position easily. The players discovered that some of them weren't going to be Rangers anymore. Keenan built his teams around gritty, tough guys who worked in the trenches and slammed bodies into boards. The Rangers had a bit too much finesse for his liking. Already, James Patrick and Darren Turcotte were gone in a trade for Blackhawks holdout Steve Larmer. There would be more.

On the March 21 deadline, the Rangers changed their look for good, and it was one that would win them the Stanley Cup. Young, speedy right wing Tony Amonte was sent to Chicago (with rights to left wing Matt Oates) for Stephane Matteau and Brian Noonan, two workhorses. Matteau later would score two double-overtime goals in the playoffs against the Devils, the latter in Game 7.

"When we got here," Noonan said, "all everyone talked about is that their goal was to win the Stanley Cup."

The Rangers also traded Olympic center Todd Marchant to Edmonton for 35-year-old veteran Craig MacTavish, the faceoff specialist who beat Bure on the last draw Wednesday night with 1.1 seconds left to give the Rangers the Cup.

The big deal, and one that brought Smith a lot of criticism, was the most difficult of his career. He traded popular winger Mike Gartner, the fourth-leading goal scorer in NHL history, to the Maple Leafs for playoff producer Glenn Anderson. Although Anderson struggled on the scoreboard, he ended up with two game-winners against the Canucks in the finals and played hard, physical hockey.

"My comfort level went up tremendously that day," Keenan said. "We knew we had the team that had the best chance to succeed."

The Rangers went 8-2-2 the rest of the season after the trades, but the ultimate test would be the playoffs. First round? No contest. They embarrassed the Islanders in a sweep, outscoring their rivals 22-3 and practically pushed a defeated Al Arbour into retirement. The Washington Capitals put up a better fight, but they simply couldn't match the talent and went down in five games.

Then came the Devils, who had not beaten the Rangers in six tries all season. But they were more confident after outlasting the Sabres and Bruins in some classic playoff games (one went four overtimes), and rookie goaltender Martin Brodeur was playing Patrick Roy-like by the time the Rangers faced him.

What transpired in the Eastern Conference finals brought hockey to the forefront. Seven games, three stretching to double overtime. Richter and Brodeur shone. It was scintillating, exhausting. Game 7 forever will be etched in the minds of those who watched at the Garden and held their breaths with every shot until Matteau ended the angst at 4:24 of double OT and set the Rangers up for another battle, this time against the surprising Canucks.

"I've won five Stanley Cups before this and I've never experienced anything like the last two months, " Messier said. "I thought I'd seen it all and I wasn't really saying much, but in my own mind I was saying, `This is absolutely incredible."

The Rangers had a chance to put Vancouver away in Game 5 of the finals. Up 3-1, they began to envision the celebration. The papers screamed: "Tonight's the Night!"

"We were victimized by that," Glenn Healy said. "It happened quickly." They lost just as quickly, 6-3, and again, 4-1, in Game 6 in Vancouver. Amid it all, Keenan was rumored to be jumping ship to Detroit. The Curse beckoned.

Keenan gave a powerful, emotional speech to his players on Monday, the day before Game 7. "He brought us back to square one and said let's not forget where we came from," Lowe said. " `Sure, we lost a couple of hockey games, but it's been an exciting, exceptional year,' he said. `Grasp on that, remember that and go out and play the game.' "

They did, and they won. Keenan, soaking from sweat and bottled water in the players' lounge, vowed he would be back to coach the Rangers another season. In the hallway, Smith, too was drenched, his voice gone, his hands clutching a bottle of champagne by its neck.

"It's all I ever wanted." he said. "I want to be here. I really just want to be with the Rangers. I feel it's my family, my home. I hope God wants me here."

For now, everyone is together, drinking from the same Cup. There will never be another moment like it.

Copyright ? 2002, Newsday, Inc.