In regards to the ones you posted that 2010 Hawks team will always be my favorite.
Now you've got me on Youtube viewing all of the CBC HNIC playoff montages starting with most recent. I'm on 2008 now and see one with the moments of the 2000 decade. That stuff is goose bump inducing.
Did Havlat ever get killed by Kronwall in 2009. Holy smokes.
Damn that Campoli turnover leading to Burrows OT goal in 2011. That was a fun series.
*Back to viewing more montages*
__________________
Quote:
"You got it man. I don't watch hockey." SidVish
Quote:
"I thought LeBron James was just going to be another addition to help me score."
Ricky Davis
Quote:
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." Albert Einstein
In 1994, the two best teams in hockey played in arenas 7 miles apart.
New York Rangers - 112 pts (1st), 299 GF (3rd), 231 GA (3rd)
New Jersey Devils - 106 pts (2nd), 306 GF (2nd), 220 GA (2nd)
Wait, a Jacques Lemaire Devils team was 2nd in the NHL in scoring with 300+ goals?? (Remember, no team scored more than 267 goals this season.) Yep. The early 90s, man.
I remember that Rangers team being a real GD powerhouse. If the Devils were better offensively and defensively, how'd they finish beneath them in the standings? Well, the Rangers going 6-0-0 vs New Jersey during the regular season might have something to do with that.
The Rangers had brought in Mark Messier to be their "messiah". The Oilers were owned by a, shall we say, corrupt, businessman named Peter Pocklington (he's appealing a prison sentence as we speak). Gretzky, Coffey, Kurri, Fuhr were sold off. Promising youngster Adam Graves was given away (to the Rangers). Messier was traded to New York for Bernie Nicholls, Louis DeBrusk, and Steven Rice. Good going, Slats.
The Rangers won the 91/92 Presidents' Trophy behind Messier's 118 pts and Hart Trophy, but were stunned in the playoffs by the Mario-less Penguins (Lemieux missed most of the series due to a vicious Graves slash on his wrist). The next year, the Rangers were stunned again by missing the playoffs. For the 93/94 season, the Rangers decided to load up on as many of Messier's former Edmonton teammates as they could (Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe, Esa Tikkanen, Craig MacTavish, Jeff Beukeboom). Mike "Hitler" Keenan was brought in to coach. Of course, they also had the fantastic Brian Leetch (strangely underrated for an American born Hall of Famer who played in New York), the brilliant-but-streaky Mike Richter in net, ex-Blackhawk scorer Steve Larmer, and young, talented Russians Alexei Kovalev and Sergei Zubov. That team was stacked.
The 93/94 Devils were led by the NHL's top rookie that year, a 21-year-old phenom named Martin Brodeur. Their leading scorer was... Scott Stevens!!! The forward corps was unspectacular but solid, led by veterans Stephane Richer, John MacLean, Claude Lemieux, and the aforementioned Bernie Nicholls, who had bounced back east by this point. Joining Stevens on D were Soviet legend Slava Fetisov and a 20-year-old Scott Niedermayer.
The Rangers reached the East Final with ease, dispatching the Isles and Caps in 9 games total. The Devils had a tougher road, outlasting Dominik Hasek's Sabres in 7 games and losing the first two games against the Bruins before winning 4 straight.
The Rangers hadn't won a Cup since 1940. The Devils had never won, and lived in New York's shadow both figuratively and literally. This was big. It was put up or shut up time.
Bear in mind that I'm a diehard Canucks fan who grew up absolutely loathing the Oilers of the 80s. They were the bane of my teenage years. At one point, they had a 27-game unbeaten streak vs Vancouver. When I was 12 in 1984 and visiting West Edmonton Mall, I said to someone that Messier was an ugly SOB, and Messier heard me. And, oh yeah, my adopted Eastern team was the Devils, as I had latched onto New Jersey's underdog run in '88. So, yeah. I was invested in this series. 1994 was the best of times; it was the blurst of times. Stupid monkeys.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. The two best teams in hockey. Seven games. Three double-OT classics. One game-tying goal with under 10 seconds left in Game 7. The most famous guarantee in sports history this side of Joe Willie Namath. An ungodly amount of (mostly deserved) hype. A series whose legacy will live forever, much to my chagrin.
EDIT: Amazingly, I couldn't find many good highlight packages online. My apologies. I'll replace the videos with better ones if I come across them later.
06-08-2014, 01:10 PM
