1994–95 New York Rangers season

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%)
Team leaders
Goals	Adam Graves (17)
Assists	Mark Messier (39)
Points	Mark Messier (53)
Penalties in minutes	Nick Kypreos (93)
Wins	Mike Richter (14)
Goals against average	Glenn Healy (2.36)
<1993–94 1995–96>

The 1994–95 New York Rangers season was the 69th season for the franchise. The season was shortened to 48 games due to the 1994-95 NHL lockout.

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.

Regular season

Final standings

Atlantic Division

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

^[1]

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.

Schedule and results

1994-95 Game Log
January: 2-4-0 (Home: 2-3-0; Road: 0-1-0) Game January Opponent Score Record 1 20 Buffalo Sabres 2 - 1 0-1-0 2 21 Montreal Canadiens 5 - 2 1-1-0 3 23 Boston Bruins 2 - 1 1-2-0 4 25 Pittsburgh Penguins 3 - 2 1-3-0 5 28 @ Quebec Nordiques 2 - 0 1-4-0 6 30 Ottawa Senators 6 - 2 2-4-0
February: 7-4-3 (Home: 1-1-3; Road: 6-3-0) Game February Opponent Score Record 7 1 @ Pittsburgh Penguins 4 - 3 2-5-0 8 2 Tampa Bay Lightning 3 - 3 OT 2-5-1 9 4 @ Ottawa Senators 2 - 1 3-5-1 10 8 Washington Capitals 5 - 4 4-5-1 11 9 @ New Jersey Devils 4 - 1 4-6-1 12 11 @ Tampa Bay Lightning 3 - 2 5-6-1 13 15 @ Buffalo Sabres 2 - 1 6-6-1 14 16 Montreal Canadiens 2 - 2 OT 6-6-2 15 18 @ Montreal Canadiens 5 - 2 6-7-2 16 20 @ Tampa Bay Lightning 3 - 1 7-7-2 17 21 @ Florida Panthers 5 - 3 8-7-2 18 24 Hartford Whalers 2 - 1 8-8-2 19 26 @ Buffalo Sabres 4 - 2 9-8-2 20 28 Florida Panthers 0 - 0 OT 9-8-3
March: 4-8-0 (Home: 3-3-0; Road: 1-5-0) Game March Opponent Score Record 21 1 @ Hartford Whalers 5 - 2 10-8-3 22 3 Philadelphia Flyers 5 - 3 11-8-3 23 5 @ Washington Capitals 4 - 2 11-9-3 24 6 Ottawa Senators 4 - 3 12-9-3 25 8 New Jersey Devils 6 - 4 13-9-3 26 11 @ Montreal Canadiens 3 - 1 13-10-3 27 15 Philadelphia Flyers 4 - 3 13-11-3 28 18 @ Washington Capitals 4 - 1 13-12-3 29 22 New Jersey Devils 5 - 2 13-13-3 30 23 @ New York Islanders 1 - 0 13-14-3 31 25 @ Quebec Nordiques 2 - 1 13-15-3 32 30 Quebec Nordiques 5 - 4 13-16-3
April: 9-6-0 (Home: 5-2-0; Road: 4-4-0) Game April Opponent Score Record 33 1 @ Boston Bruins 3 - 2 14-16-3 34 2 @ Philadelphia Flyers 4 - 2 14-17-3 35 5 @ Florida Panthers 5 - 0 15-17-3 36 7 New York Islanders 4 - 3 15-18-3 37 9 @ New Jersey Devils 2 - 0 15-19-3 38 12 Buffalo Sabres 3 - 1 16-19-3 39 14 Boston Bruins 5 - 3 17-19-3 40 16 @ New York Islanders 3 - 2 18-19-3 41 18 @ Pittsburgh Penguins 6 - 5 18-20-3 42 20 Hartford Whalers 3 - 2 19-20-3 43 23 @ Boston Bruins 5 - 4 19-21-3 44 24 Washington Capitals 5 - 4 20-21-3 45 26 Tampa Bay Lightning 6 - 4 21-21-3 46 28 New York Islanders 4 - 2 21-22-3 47 30 @ Philadelphia Flyers 2 - 0 22-22-3
May: 0-1-0 (Home: 0-1-0; Road: 0-0-0) Game May Opponent Score Record 48 2 Florida Panthers 4 - 3 22-23-3

Playoffs

The Rangers faced the first-place Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs. They narrowly lost game 1 by a score of 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 4 games to 2. 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 a 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 8 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.

Key:      Win      Loss

1995 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Conference Quarter-finals: vs. (1) Quebec Nordiques - New York Rangers win series 4-2 # Date Visitor Score Home OT Series 1 May 6 New York Rangers 4 - 5 Quebec Nordiques Quebec leads series 1-0 2 May 8 New York Rangers 8 - 3 Quebec Nordiques Series tied 1-1 3 May 10 Quebec Nordiques 3 - 4 New York Rangers New York Rangers lead series 2-1 4 May 12 Quebec Nordiques 2 - 3 New York Rangers OT New York Rangers lead series 3-1 5 May 14 New York Rangers 2 - 4 Quebec Nordiques New York Rangers lead series 3-2 6 May 16 Quebec Nordiques 2 - 4 New York Rangers New York Rangers win series 4-2
Conference Semi-finals: vs. (2) Philadelphia Flyers - Philadelphia wins series 4-0 # Date Visitor Score Home OT Series 1 May 21 New York Rangers 4 - 5 Philadelphia Flyers OT Philadelphia leads series 1-0 2 May 22 New York Rangers 3 - 4 Philadelphia Flyers OT Philadelphia leads series 2-0 3 May 24 Philadelphia Flyers 5 - 2 New York Rangers Philadelphia leads series 3-0 4 May 26 Philadelphia Flyers 4 - 1 New York Rangers Philadelphia wins series 4-0

Player statistics

Skaters

Regular Season Player GP G A Pts +/- PIM Messier, MarkMark Messier 46 14 39 53 8 40 Leetch, BrianBrian Leetch 48 9 32 41 0 18 Zubov, SergeiSergei Zubov 38 10 26 36 -2 18 Graves, AdamAdam Graves 47 17 14 31 9 51 Larmer, SteveSteve Larmer 47 14 15 29 8 16 Kovalev, AlexeiAlexei Kovalev 48 13 15 28 -6 30 Noonan, BrianBrian Noonan 45 14 13 27 -3 26 Nedved, PetrPetr Nedved 46 11 12 23 -1 26 Verbeek, PatPat Verbeek^† 19 10 5 15 -2 18 Nemchinov, SergeiSergei Nemchinov 47 7 6 13 -6 16 Karpovtsev, AlexanderAlexander Karpovtsev 47 4 8 12 -4 30 Wells, JayJay Wells 43 2 7 9 0 36 Matteau, StephaneStephane Matteau 41 3 5 8 -8 25 Lowe, KevinKevin Lowe 44 1 7 8 -2 58 Osborne, MarkMark Osborne 37 1 3 4 -2 19 Kypreos, NickNick Kypreos 40 1 3 4 0 93 Beukeboom, JeffJeff Beukeboom 44 1 3 4 3 70 Olczyk, EdEd Olczyk^‡ 20 2 1 3 -2 4 Kocur, JoeyJoey Kocur 48 1 2 3 -4 71 Norstrom, MattiasMattias Norstrom 9 0 3 3 2 2 Langdon, DarrenDarren Langdon 18 1 1 2 0 62 Messier, JobyJoby Messier 10 0 2 2 2 18 Roy, Jean-YvesJean-Yves Roy 3 1 0 1 -1 2 McCosh, ShawnShawn McCosh 5 1 0 1 1 2 Featherstone, GlenGlen Featherstone^‡ 6 1 0 1 0 18 Hartman, MikeMike Hartman 1 0 0 0 0 4 Lacroix, DanielDaniel Lacroix^† 1 0 0 0 0 0 Loney, TroyTroy Loney^‡ 4 0 0 0 -2 0 LaFayette, NathanNathan LaFayette^† 12 0 0 0 1 0

Playoffs Player GP G A Pts PIM Leetch, BrianBrian Leetch 10 6 8 14 8 Messier, MarkMark Messier 10 3 10 13 8 Kovalev, AlexeiAlexei Kovalev 10 4 7 11 10 Zubov, SergeiSergei Zubov 10 3 8 11 2 Verbeek, PatPat Verbeek 10 4 6 10 20 Nemchinov, SergeiSergei Nemchinov 10 4 5 9 2 Graves, AdamAdam Graves 10 4 4 8 8 Nedved, PetrPetr Nedved 10 3 2 5 6 Larmer, SteveSteve Larmer 10 2 2 4 6 Kypreos, NickNick Kypreos 10 0 2 2 6 Osborne, MarkMark Osborne 7 1 0 1 2 Lowe, KevinKevin Lowe 10 0 1 1 12 Matteau, StephaneStephane Matteau 9 0 1 1 10 Karpovtsev, AlexanderAlexander Karpovtsev 8 1 0 1 0 LaFayette, NathanNathan LaFayette 8 0 0 0 2 Loney, TroyTroy Loney 1 0 0 0 0 Norstrom, MattiasMattias Norstrom 3 0 0 0 0 Kocur, JoeyJoey Kocur 10 0 0 0 8 Beukeboom, JeffJeff Beukeboom 9 0 0 0 10 Wells, JayJay Wells 10 0 0 0 8 Noonan, BrianBrian Noonan 5 0 0 0 8

Goaltenders

Regular Season

Player	GP	TOI	W	L	T	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO
Richter, MikeMike Richter	35	1993	14	17	2	97	2.92	884	.890	2
Healy, GlennGlenn Healy	17	888	8	6	1	35	2.36	377	.907	1

Playoffs

Player	GP	TOI	W	L	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO
Richter, MikeMike Richter	7	384	2	5	23	3.60	189	.878	0
Healy, GlennGlenn Healy	5	230	2	1	13	3.39	93	.860	0

^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Rangers. Stats reflect time with Rangers only.
^‡Traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with Rangers only.

^[2]

Note:

Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Transactions

• 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 Nedvěd.
• 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 for RW Pat Verbeek.^[3]

Draft picks

New York's picks at the 1994 NHL Entry Draft in Hartford, Connecticut at the Hartford Civic Center.

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	HC 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	HC CSKA Moscow (Russia)
8	208	Craig Anderson	D	United States	Park Center H.S. (Minnesota)
9	209	Vitali Yeremeyev	G	Kazakhstan	HC Kamenogorsk (Russia)
9	234	Eric Boulton	LW	Canada	Oshawa Generals (OHL)
10	260	Radoslav Kropac	Forward	Slovakia	HC Slovan Bratislava (Russia)
11	267	Jamie Butt	LW	Canada	Tacoma Rockets (WHL)
11	286	Kim Johnsson	D	Sweden	Malmo IF (SEL)

References

• Rangers on Hockey Database

1. 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.
2. "1994-95 New York Rangers". hockeydb.com. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
3. NHL.com - 2008 Trade Deadline