For every No. 10 Artemi Panarin jersey you see, there is a No. 11 Mark Messier. For every No. 31 Igor Shesterkin blueshirt, there is a No. 35 Mike Richter.
Thirty years have passed since the Rangers last won the Stanley Cup, ending a 54-year drought, and that team is still remembered fondly. Part of why Rangers fans have fallen so hard for this group are the similarities to that team.
This year, the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy with 114 points, given to the team with the most points, just like in 1994. They swept their opening-round series, took a 3-0 lead en route to winning the next round and, on Wednesday night, dropped the opener of the Eastern Conference Final, each just like they did three decades ago.
“It reminds me a lot of ’94,” said Gary Weingarten, a territory manager for Freemotion Fitness from Bayside, Queens, at Madison Square Garden as the Rangers lost Game 1 to the Panthers, 3-0. “[Coach Peter] Laviolette reminds me a little bit of [1994 coach Mike] Keenan, too. I just think he’s very tough, he’s got the resume that Keenan had. They remind me of one another. I didn’t like [former coach Gerard] Gallant too much. I think the leadership of the team, the leadership and the depth of the teams are similar. The Rangers had a lot of depth in ’94. They were great on the third line back then, and the goalies — the goalies remind me of one another.”
The Rangers have gotten close since 1994, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2014 and the Eastern Conference Final four other times. But they have been unable to break through.
On Wednesday night, the Rangers fell behind on Matthew Tkachuk’s first-period snipe and surrendered a back-breaking own goal by Alexis Lafreniere in the third, while failing to get any of their 23 shots past Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky.
“Listen, every Rangers fan swore that night [in 1994], just give me one and we’ll be fine,” joked Ed Goldberg, a diehard 58-year old Rangers fan from Corona, Queens, wearing a white Mats Zuccarello jersey, white Rangers hat and blue Rangers socks. “We didn’t think they would take us that serious.”
Goldberg believes the vibe with this group is reminiscent of 1994 — the camaraderie among the players, the likability of the team.
“The ’14 team was like that,” Goldberg said. “That would be the only other time when everybody was behind each other.”
The moment this spring that has really felt like 1994 was Game 6 of the second round of the playoffs, when Chris Kreider pulled a Messier, scoring a third-period hat trick to rally the Rangers from a two-goal deficit and clinch the series. Messier had a third-period hat trick in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Devils in 1994 that forced a seventh game.
“Oh my God, I had to pick my daughter up at dance class. I was driving, and while I was driving, they kept on scoring, [so] I left her at dance class and kept driving,” Goldberg recalled with a chuckle. “She’s 18, so this was her first Rangers run. She knew what was going on, so she didn’t worry.”
Others, like Thomas Cavanagh of Flushing, Queens, aren’t old enough to have been around for 1994. The 22-year-old has to rely on his parents to know what it was like. But he’s seen footage and heard stories.
“That’s all everyone talks about, that’s all everyone thinks about. You always see the comparison, all the stats,” he said. “People really believe in this team. People wouldn’t be saying it’s 1994 [again] if this was any other Rangers team. A lot of people believe in this team, the coach Laviolette. This year everyone’s fully confident this could be the year.”
Cavanagh would like to experience it for himself, and not have to rely on the memories of others to know what it’s like for the Rangers — who are back at MSG for Game 2 on Friday night — to win it all.
“I just want to see one,” he said.
Today’s back page
An Amazin’ mess
It’s May 23. The Mets (21-28) trail the NL East-leading Phillies by 14 games in the loss column. They are seven games under .500 and far closer to the division’s basement than its penthouse. A trade-deadline sendoff feels like a formality.
The offseason concerns of them punting the season seem to have been warranted.
There is nothing the Mets do well. They don’t pitch well enough. They don’t hit well enough. The overworked bullpen is starting to spring leaks.
Aside from that one hot streak, when they went 12-3, they are 9-25. That’s a .264 winning percentage. The 12-3 run feels like a fluke, a two-week run that was the exception to the norm. They haven’t been this far under .500 this early in the season since 2017.
In Wednesday’s sweep-clinching 6-3 loss to the Guardians, they became the first team to hit three homers in consecutive games without winning either contest. They just find ways to lose.
The most concerning aspect of all is it’s the players who were supposed to be counted on who have let them down the most: the core of Edwin Diaz, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor.
Obviously, injuries to Kodai Senga and Francisco Alvarez have not helped matters. But the aforementioned players have not come close to playing up to expectations. Diaz has lost his job as the closer for the time being, and the four hitters have uninspiring OPS marks ranging from .779 (Alonso) and .766 (Nimmo) to .657 (McNeil) and .634 (Lindor).
Remember, this was the same position-player core that won 101 games two years ago, then blew the division to the Braves and couldn’t get past the Padres in the wild-card round. The same group that was a mess last year. In hindsight, new president of baseball operations David Stearns was smart not to spend on this core.
The players he brought in mostly have performed well, notably starting pitchers Luis Severino and Sean Manaea and outfielder Harrison Bader.
The problem has been the high-priced holdovers, and based on what we have seen from them since the tail end of 2022, there’s no reason to believe that is going to change.
Drain the swamp?
Jaden Rashada is the first. He certainly won’t be the last.
The college quarterback is suing Florida football coach Billy Napier, a Gators booster and others, alleging they defrauded him out of millions by backing out of a promised $13.85 million NIL agreement.
The suit includes allegations that Napier promised Rashada’s father a $1 million payment upon him signing with the school. He never received that money, and Florida boosters never held up their end of the deal, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida.
In signing with Florida, Rashada passed on a commitment to Miami, which was offering him $9.5 million, per the filing. Rashada wound up going to Arizona State and has since transferred to Georgia.
“Sadly, unethical and illegal tactics like this are more and more commonplace in the Wild West that is today’s college football landscape,” the lawsuit reads. “As the first scholar-athlete to take a stand against such egregious behavior by adults who should know better, Jaden seeks to hold Defendants accountable for their actions and to expose the unchecked abuse of power that they shamelessly wielded.”
These kinds of situations are going to become more frequent.
Not all schools engage in written contracts for NIL, and promises are often broken.
Rashada is just the first player to make it public and take legal action.
Prospect of the day
Ben Rice had a day to remember.
The Yankees catcher/first base prospect mashed two homers, drove in four runs, walked twice and stole two bases in Double-A Somerset’s 11-2 win on Wednesday.
Rice started his day with a first-pitch homer in the second inning and capped it off in the ninth with a three-run blast to put the game on ice.
The 2021 12th-round pick out of Dartmouth has 10 homers and an .869 OPS in 139 at-bats in Double-A this year.
— Andrew Battifarano
What we’re reading 👀
⚾ Two Juan Soto homers. Aaron Judge’s 14th of the year. An Alex Verdugo blast for good measure. That’ll do, as the Yankees got back in the win column.
⚾ Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner grumbled about $300 million payrolls being “simply not sustainable for us financially,” but insisted the team would be able to afford re-signing Soto.
🏈 We could see a different workload for superstar Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner this season.
🏀 The Knicks’ Jalen Brunson got hand surgery (check back in 6-8 weeks!) and was named second-team All-NBA.
🏈 Former standout Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks breaks down what’s ahead for rookie Malik Nabers.
🏀 Caitlin Clark popped off for 21-7-7 in her fifth WNBA game, but she’s still sporting a 0 in an important stat called wins.
🏒 The Devils have a new head coach.
🏀 The Liberty put their 4-0 record on the line against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky.
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