1994–95_New_York_Rangers_season
1994–95 New York Rangers season
NHL hockey team season
The 1994–95 New York Rangers season was the franchise's 69th season. The season was shortened to 48 games due to the 1994–95 NHL lockout.
| 1994–95 New York Rangers | |
|---|---|
| Division | 4th Atlantic |
| Conference | 8th Eastern |
| 1994–95 record | 22–23–3 |
| Home record | 11–10–3 |
| Road record | 11–13–0 |
| Goals for | 139 |
| Goals against | 134 |
| Team information | |
| General manager | Neil Smith |
| Coach | Colin Campbell |
| Captain | Mark Messier |
| Alternate captains | Adam Graves Brian Leetch |
| Arena | Madison Square Garden |
| Average attendance | 18,194 (99.9%) |
| Minor league affiliate(s) | Binghamton Rangers |
| Team leaders | |
| Goals | Adam Graves (17) |
| Assists | Mark Messier (39) |
| Points | Mark Messier (53) |
| Penalty minutes | Nick Kypreos (93) |
| Plus/minus | Adam Graves (+9) |
| Wins | Mike Richter (14) |
| Goals against average | Glenn Healy (2.36) |
For the third time in as many years, the Rangers started the season with a different head coach. Mike Keenan, who had led the team to the Stanley Cup one year earlier, left to become head coach and general manager of the St. Louis Blues under controversial circumstances. Colin Campbell was hired to replace him and the Blues sent Petr Nedved to the Rangers as compensation for Keenan, with Doug Lidster and Esa Tikkanen sent to St. Louis with their former coach.
The Rangers barely qualified for the playoffs in the shortened season, finishing one point ahead of the Florida Panthers for the last spot in the Eastern Conference. The team advanced to the second round of the playoffs, where they fell in a sweep to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Final standings
| No. | CR | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Philadelphia Flyers | 48 | 28 | 16 | 4 | 150 | 132 | 60 |
| 2 | 5 | New Jersey Devils | 48 | 22 | 18 | 8 | 136 | 121 | 52 |
| 3 | 6 | Washington Capitals | 48 | 22 | 18 | 8 | 136 | 120 | 52 |
| 4 | 8 | New York Rangers | 48 | 22 | 23 | 3 | 139 | 134 | 47 |
| 5 | 9 | Florida Panthers | 48 | 20 | 22 | 6 | 115 | 127 | 46 |
| 6 | 12 | Tampa Bay Lightning | 48 | 17 | 28 | 3 | 120 | 144 | 37 |
| 7 | 13 | New York Islanders | 48 | 15 | 28 | 5 | 126 | 158 | 35 |
Note: No. = Division rank, CR = Conference rank, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.
| R | Div | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quebec Nordiques | NE | 48 | 30 | 13 | 5 | 185 | 134 | 65 |
| 2 | Philadelphia Flyers | AT | 48 | 28 | 16 | 4 | 150 | 132 | 60 |
| 3 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NE | 48 | 29 | 16 | 3 | 181 | 158 | 61 |
| 4 | Boston Bruins | NE | 48 | 27 | 18 | 3 | 150 | 127 | 57 |
| 5 | New Jersey Devils | AT | 48 | 22 | 18 | 8 | 136 | 121 | 52 |
| 6 | Washington Capitals | AT | 48 | 22 | 18 | 8 | 136 | 120 | 52 |
| 7 | Buffalo Sabres | NE | 48 | 22 | 19 | 7 | 130 | 119 | 51 |
| 8 | New York Rangers | AT | 48 | 22 | 23 | 3 | 139 | 134 | 47 |
| 9 | Florida Panthers | AT | 48 | 20 | 22 | 6 | 115 | 127 | 46 |
| 10 | Hartford Whalers | NE | 48 | 19 | 24 | 5 | 127 | 141 | 43 |
| 11 | Montreal Canadiens | NE | 48 | 18 | 23 | 7 | 125 | 148 | 43 |
| 12 | Tampa Bay Lightning | AT | 48 | 17 | 28 | 3 | 120 | 144 | 37 |
| 13 | New York Islanders | AT | 48 | 15 | 28 | 5 | 126 | 158 | 35 |
| 14 | Ottawa Senators | NE | 48 | 9 | 34 | 5 | 117 | 174 | 23 |
Divisions: AT – Atlantic, NE – Northeast
bold – Qualified for playoffs
The Rangers faced the first-place Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs. They narrowly lost Game 1, 5–4, as the Nordiques were powered by Joe Sakic's hat-trick. New York came back in game 2, winning 8–3. Sergei Nemchinov and Petr Nedved each scored twice. After edging the Nordiques 4–3 in Game 3, the Rangers found themselves trailing 2–0 in Game 4. They would tie it up on goals by Brian Leetch and Alexei Kovalev. Steve Larmer scored the winner at 8:09 of the first overtime period. Facing elimination, the Nordiques played a determined Game 5 at home and won 4–2 to cut New York's lead in the series to 3–2. The Rangers, at home for Game 6, built up a 4–0 lead and ended up winning 4–2, to eliminate the Nordiques four games to two. The Nordiques moved to Colorado almost immediately, as the announcement came on May 25, 1995.
In the second round, the Rangers faced a determined Philadelphia Flyers team that was led by the "Legion of Doom" line. In Game 1, the Rangers jumped out to a 2–0 lead after the first period on power-play goals by Brian Leetch and Petr Nedved. With the help of John LeClair's hat trick, the Flyers took a 4–3 lead in the third period. With only 19 seconds remaining, Pat Verbeek tied the game at 4–4. However, it was the Flyers who would ultimately win the game, as Eric Desjardins scored at 7:03 of the first overtime period. Game 2 started nearly identically to Game 1, as New York led 2–0 after the first period on power-play goals. Both were scored by Brian Leetch. Philadelphia re-gained control of the game as they had in Game 1, leading 3–2 midway through the third period. With under eight minutes to go, Leetch completed his hat trick to tie the score at 3–3. This game also went into overtime, and the Flyers needed only 25 seconds to win it, as defenseman Kevin Haller scored his 3rd of the playoffs to give Philadelphia a 2–0 lead in the series. The Flyers went on to dominate Games 3 and 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York, winning 5–2 and 4–1 to complete the sweep.
Regular season
| 1994–95 regular season[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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January: 2–4–0 (home: 2–3–0; road: 0–1–0)
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February: 7–4–3 (home: 1–1–3; road: 6–3–0)
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March: 4–8–0 (home: 3–3–0; road: 1–5–0)
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April: 9–6–0 (home: 5–2–0; road: 4–4–0)
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May: 0–1–0 (home: 0–1–0; road: 0–0–0)
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| Legend:
Win (2 points) Loss (0 points) Tie (1 point) |
Playoffs
| 1995 Stanley Cup playoffs[3] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. (1) Quebec Nordiques – Rangers win 4–2
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Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. (2) Philadelphia Flyers – Flyers win 4–0
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| Legend:
Win Loss |
Scoring
- Position abbreviations: C = Center; D = Defense; G = Goaltender; LW = Left Wing; RW = Right Wing
- † = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Rangers only.
- ‡ = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Rangers only.
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | +/- | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | +/- | PIM |
| 11 | Mark Messier | C | 46 | 14 | 39 | 53 | 8 | 40 | 10 | 3 | 10 | 13 | −11 | 8 |
| 2 | Brian Leetch | D | 48 | 9 | 32 | 41 | 0 | 18 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 14 | −1 | 8 |
| 21 | Sergei Zubov | D | 38 | 10 | 26 | 36 | −2 | 18 | 10 | 3 | 8 | 11 | −9 | 2 |
| 9 | Adam Graves | LW | 47 | 17 | 14 | 31 | 9 | 51 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 8 | −13 | 8 |
| 28 | Steve Larmer | RW | 47 | 14 | 15 | 29 | 8 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −5 | 6 |
| 27 | Alexei Kovalev | C | 48 | 13 | 15 | 28 | −6 | 30 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 2 | 10 |
| 16 | Brian Noonan | RW | 45 | 14 | 13 | 27 | −3 | 26 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 10 | Petr Nedved | C | 46 | 11 | 12 | 23 | −1 | 26 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | −4 | 6 |
| 17 | Pat Verbeek† | RW | 19 | 10 | 5 | 15 | −2 | 18 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 10 | −8 | 20 |
| 13 | Sergei Nemchinov | LW | 47 | 7 | 6 | 13 | −6 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| 25 | Alexander Karpovtsev | D | 47 | 4 | 8 | 12 | −4 | 30 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 0 |
| 24 | Jay Wells | D | 43 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 36 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −4 | 8 |
| 32 | Stephane Matteau | LW | 41 | 3 | 5 | 8 | −8 | 25 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −1 | 10 |
| 4 | Kevin Lowe | D | 44 | 1 | 7 | 8 | −2 | 58 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −5 | 12 |
| 23 | Jeff Beukeboom | D | 44 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 70 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| 19 | Nick Kypreos | LW | 40 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 93 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 20 | Mark Osborne | LW | 37 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −2 | 19 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | Eddie Olczyk‡ | LW | 20 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 26 | Joe Kocur | RW | 48 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −4 | 71 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 5 | Mattias Norstrom | D | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |
| 15 | Darren Langdon | LW | 18 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 62 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 30 | Glenn Healy | G | 17 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 29 | Joby Messier | D | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6 | Glen Featherstone‡ | D | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 39 | Shawn McCosh | C | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 8 | Jean-Yves Roy | RW | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 18 | Mike Hartman | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 37 | Daniel Lacroix† | C | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 22 | Nathan LaFayette† | C | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 2 |
| 14 | Troy Loney† | LW | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | Mike Richter | G | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Goaltending
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Player | GP | W | L | T | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI | GP | W | L | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI |
| 35 | Mike Richter | 35 | 14 | 17 | 2 | 884 | 97 | 2.92 | .890 | 2 | 1993 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 189 | 23 | 3.60 | .878 | 0 | 384 |
| 30 | Glenn Healy | 17 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 377 | 35 | 2.36 | .907 | 1 | 888 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 93 | 13 | 3.39 | .860 | 0 | 230 |
Awards
| Type | Award/honor | Recipient | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| League (annual) |
Lester Patrick Trophy | Brian Mullen | [4] |
| Team | Ceil Saidel Memorial Award | Adam Graves | [5] |
| "Crumb Bum" Award | Mark Messier | [5] | |
| Frank Boucher Trophy | Mark Messier | [5] | |
| Good Guy Award | Kevin Lowe | [5] | |
| Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award | Mattias Norstrom | [5] | |
| Players' Player Award | Adam Graves | [5] | |
| Rangers MVP | Mark Messier | [5] | |
| Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award | Mark Messier | [5] |
Milestones
| Milestone | Player | Date | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000th point | Steve Larmer | March 8, 1995 | [6] |
| 1,000th game played | Steve Larmer | April 20, 1995 | [7] |
| Jay Wells | April 30, 1995 | [8] |
- July 24, 1994 – Doug Lidster was traded by the New York Rangers, along with Esa Tikkanen, to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Petr Nedved.
- March 23, 1995 – Hartford obtained D Glen Featherstone, D Michael Stewart and a first-round pick in the 1995 Entry Draft (Jean-Sebastien Giguere) and a fourth-round pick in the 1996 Entry Draft in exchange for RW Pat Verbeek.
New York's picks at the 1994 NHL Entry Draft in Hartford, Connecticut, at the Hartford Civic Center.[9]
| Round | # | Player | Position | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 | Dan Cloutier | G |  Canada |
Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL) |
| 2 | 52 | Rudolf Vercik | LW |  Slovakia |
Slovan Bratislava (Slovak Extraliga) |
| 3 | 78 | Adam Smith | D | Canada |
Tacoma Rockets (WHL) |
| 4 | 100 | Alexander Korobolin | D |  Russia |
Chelyabinsk Mechel (Rus-1) |
| 4 | 104 | Sylvain Blouin | LW | Canada |
Laval Titan (QMJHL) |
| 5 | 130 | Martin Ethier | D | Canada |
Beauport Harfangs (QMJHL) |
| 6 | 135 | Yuri Litvinov | C | Russia |
PHC Krylya Sovetov (Russia) |
| 6 | 156 | David Brosseau | RW | Canada |
Shawinigan Cataractes (QMJHL) |
| 7 | 182 | Alexei Lazarenko | RW |  Ukraine |
CSKA Moscow (Russia) |
| 8 | 208 | Craig Anderson | D |  United States |
Park Center Senior High School (USHS-MN) |
| 9 | 209 | Vitali Yeremeyev | G |  Kazakhstan |
HC Kamenogorsk (Russia) |
| 9 | 234 | Eric Boulton | LW | Canada |
Oshawa Generals (OHL) |
| 10 | 260 | Radoslav Kropac | F | Slovakia |
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) |
| 11 | 267 | Jamie Butt | LW | Canada |
Tacoma Rockets (WHL) |
| 11 | 286 | Kim Johnsson | D |  Sweden |
Malmö IF (SEL) |
- "New York Rangers 1994-95 roster and scoring statistics at hockeydb.com". www.hockeydb.com. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- "1994-95 New York Rangers Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts". Hockey-Reference.com. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- Standings: NHL Public Relations Department (2008). Dave McCarthy; et al. (eds.). THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Official Guide & Record Book/2009. National Hockey League. p. 154. ISBN 978-1-894801-14-0.
- "1994-95 New York Rangers Schedule". Hockey-Reference.com. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
- "Lester Patrick Trophy". records.nhl.com. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
- 2014–15 New York Rangers Media Guide. New York Rangers. 2014. pp. 349–352.
- "NHL / Larmer's Point Sparks Rangers / 43rd player to reach 1,000". sfgate.com. March 9, 1995. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
- Lapointe, Joe (April 21, 1995). "HOCKEY; Nedved's Questionable Goal Is the Right Answer". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
Last night's game was the 1,000th of STEVE LARMER's career
- Yannis, Alex (May 3, 1995). "HOCKEY; Only Sure Thing for Rangers: 8th Place". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
JAY WELLS was honored before the game for playing his 1,000th game in the National Hockey League Sunday at Philadelphia.
- "1994 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com". www.hockeydb.com. Retrieved September 6, 2023.