These Rangers Playing Much Like Champions of ’94

The comparisons with the 1993-94 Stanley Cup team are inevitable as the Rangers reach the All-Star break considered among the elite. They are mentioned in the same breath as Detroit, Colorado, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Are they as formidable as the team that erased 54 years of New York angst? “I don’t want to say that because it could come back to haunt me, but this team has as much character if not more than the Cup team,” Rangers President and General Manager Neil Smith said. “That year they might have been partially playing out of fear because they had come off a bad year the year before, missing the playoffs. Then with Mike (Keenan), changes were going to be made if they didn’t perform. There seemed to be on a nightly basis a fear factor. This year they want to win for each other and the coach and they have fun doing it.”

Character, personality. Mark Messier used those words Saturday after the Rangers (28-11-8) taught the Flyers a lesson with a textbook 4-0 shutout at the Spectrum, their second victory this season against the team that embarrassed them in the playoffs. The next night, the Rangers ensured Keenan would not walk into their house and steal two points (and personal satisfaction) by rebounding from a 3-1 deficit to save a tie and extend the unbeaten stretch to 20 games at Madison Square Garden.

Smith called it a “you’re-not-going-to-beat-us type of attitude.” The ’94 team had it. This team has it.

“In the 1994 season we didn’t have any lulls after we took off, any soft spots,” Kevin Lowe said. “There might have been times we didn’t play well but never lost a lot of games. I think this team with the experience it has, the goaltending it has, that will be the case. I don’t see us losing a lot of games in a row. I think you’ll see this style of hockey the rest of the year.”

Colin Campbell cautioned that despite the lighter schedule, the second half is ominous. In February alone, the Rangers play the Islanders three times, the Penguins, Devils and Lightning once and get their first look at the Panthers. They finish the season in April with two games each against the Devils, Flyers and Panthers, and one each vs. Washington and Tampa Bay.

“Our team has to come back and say OK, it’s 4-1 in the third period, and we have to look at it like it’s 0-0,” said Campbell, whose team is 8-1-3 in its last 12 games. “We’re in for a different season, a real divisional race.”

Still, he is happy with the way things have taken shape after a nightmarish 1995 in which the defending champs eked into the playoffs.

“It’s been a much easier team to coach this year than last year,” Campbell said. “The people I’ve put out in certain situations have done the job. They haven’t complained. Nobody’s griping about ice. (Against the Flyers) the Robitaille-Kovalev-Ferraro line would let me know when Lindros was up ... even though it means they’re going to sit for another shift.

“I think we’ve come a long way from our first Philadelphia game (a 2-1 victory) when we went in and weren’t sure. We were asking ourselves the questions everyone else was asking. (Saturday) we went in with different demeanor. Sometimes you worry you’re going to relax before seven days (of vacation), but we bounced back (Sunday) and found a way.”

Smith doesn’t believe he will have to change the team’s chemistry like he did at the trading deadline during the Cup season. He isn’t sure what else the team needs for the playoff push -- “I’m waiting for us to lose,” he said -- and may have to hold his cards until Mike Richter shows he can rebound from a partially torn groin. If not, Smith may have to deal for a goalie.

Richter says he is working on strength and his rehabilitation is “ahead of schedule,” but the trainers likely will be conservative and keep him out for January. “I’m fortunate we don’t have a lot of games,” he said.

The break comes at the perfect time for all the Rangers. “Chances are we could be a little rusty at the outset,” Lowe said, “but the rest is going to pay off more than the rust will hurt us.”