A Messier Moment In History

On this, the 15th anniversary of the 1994 Stanley Cup Championship by the New York Rangers, I decided to crack open the commemorative DVD set that I purchased earlier this year. It has all 14 Eastern Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals games from 1994, and I decided to watch the one game that I'd never seen in its entirety before: Game 6 between the Rangers and Devils. The reason that I'd missed seeing it live is that it was played on the same night that the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation ("All Good Things Must End") was broadcast. The combination of the Rangers facing elimination for the first time in that playoff year and the highly-anticipated conclusion of one of my favourite TV series (at the time) had me favouring the latter with my attention over the former.

I did see the final several minutes of the hockey game, though (after ST:TNG had wrapped up) and what an exciting ride that was! For those who don't know, the events around this game went as follows:

• The Rangers had finished 1st overall that season, with the Devils 6 points behind at 2nd place overall
  
• The Rangers had gone 6-o against the Devils during the regular season, meaning that had the two teams split those 6 games, the Rangers would have finished 2nd to the Devils
• The Devils had won Games 1, 4 and 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference, heading home for Game 6 with a chance to advance to the Finals for the first time ever (where the Vancouver Canucks awaited the winner of the series)
• Between Games 5 and 6, Rangers captain Mark Messier had publicly assured everyone that there'd be a Game 7 in the series ("We'll Win Game 6" he had promised in letters several inches high in all of the New York sports sections)
• Instead, though, on the strength of two deflections (one off of Ranger Sergei Nemchinov's stick), the Devils jumped to a 2-0 1st period lead
• The Rangers generally looked pathetic in the 1st period, with only their goalie keeping the first twenty minutes from being a rout (something I hadn't realized until I watched that part of the game this afternoon)
  
• In the 2nd period, the Devils hit a post and had several other great scoring opportunities to get their 3rd goal, but couldn't pull it off (thanks in large part to some amazing goaltending by Mike Richter)
• Play was much more even in the 2nd period, and rookie, 21-year old Devils goalie Martin Brodeur had to rise to the occasion after barely being tested in the first frame and seemed to be smiling throughout it (and holy cow do the pads on both goaltenders look tiny by today's standards!)
  
• With less than 2:00 to go in the 2nd, Messier dropped a pass back to Alexei Kovalev who faked a slapshot, skated in a bit closer, and then drilled the puck past Brodeur to make it 2-1
  
• In the 3rd period, the Rangers looked much more like the President's Trophy winners, although New Jersey still had some chances to make it 3-1 in the first couple of minutes
  
• At 2:48, though, Kovalev returned the favour by setting up his captain who slid a perfect backhander past Brodeur that wiped the smile off the young goalie's face
  
• After matching Roughing penalties were handed out to make it 4-on-4 hockey, Leetch then dished it to Kovalev, who took a shot on net, the rebound of which went right to Mark Messier, who gave the Rangers their first lead of the night at the 12:12 mark
• By this point, the Rangers had generally taken over the flow of the game, as the Devils could no longer rely on their 1-2-2 trap style of defensive play
• Most of the play for the next several minutes was in front of and all around Brodeur, but the score stayed 3-2 as the clock counted down to 2:49 and the Rangers took a slashing penalty
• With Glenn Anderson in the box, and just under 2:00 to go, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire decided to pull Brodeur in order to get a 2-man advantage, and seconds after winning the faceoff Messier grabbed the puck again and (knowing that there'd be no icing call if he missed), fired the puck the length of the ice and into the empty net, for a natural hattrick, a comfortable 2-goal lead, and a fulfillment of his guarantee of a Game 6 victory!
  

The biggest drawback to this particular DVD set is that it features the ESPN coverage of the games rather than CBC's Hockey Night in Canada play-by-play. As an indication of how inferior the American version was, there wasn't a mention of the Messier "guarantee" until the 2nd period, and when the Rangers pulled Richter to put a 6th skater out for a faceoff deep in Devils territory with 0.00.8 seconds left in the 1st, the commentators didn't even notice! Also, this was (I guess) before the pervasive use of the onscreen graphics for the score and time remaining (introduced by Fox and its use of the "Fox Box"?) making for some uncomfortable moments as you couldn't tell how much time was left in a powerplay, for example. But it's certainly still better than nothing. And one thing I'll say for the guys on the DVD (who probably covered the Rangers on the MSG Network all season long) is that they immediately picked up on the point at which the Blueshirts finally came to life, even before Kovalev scored their first goal. They had great familiarity with both teams in the series, but just didn't seem to know how to really bring the game alive until the latter half of the 3rd period.

Anyway, that was my 15th anniversary celebration! And to help mark the occasion, Vicki presented me with 2 new video games this morning. I now own InFamous and Red Faction: Guerrilla, both on the PS/3! Woo hoo!! Now I just have to decide which to try first, once I finish Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare!