Are the Rangers poised to repeat themselves 30 years later?
It seems wild that 30 years ago, president and general manager Neil Smith along with their head coach «Iron» Mike Keenan guided the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup in over 50 years.
The team they constructed played well overall that year and by the time their trade deadline appeared on the calendar, both men felt they needed to go out and get as much talent as possible to try to rid themselves of the Cup drought.
Flash forward to today and the stories are eerily similar.
Both the 2024 and the 1994 team are paralleling the same course as both held and are holding first place in their division.
Both clubs were littered with multiple stars and even though their coaches have different styles in different eras, both Peter Laviolette and Mike Keenan hold the team to a high standard.
During the 1994 run, Smith kept hearing Keenan in his ear constantly asking for specific players to be added to the team so that they could overrun their opponents.
In less than 24 hours he had overhauled four of their twelve forward slots by removing Mike Gartner and Tony Amonte and added Craig Mctavish and Glenn Anderson.'
It remains to be seen on whether general manager Chris Drury will be as bold as Smith was and in a salary cap world it's very different than what the Rangers had in 1994.
However, I strongly feel that Drury will be aggressive and get but his Rangers need to go after another cup 30 years later.
| POLL | ||
Will the Rangers win the Stanley Cup this year? | ||
| Yes | 215 | 58.3 % |
| No | 154 | 41.7 % |
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