The 1994–95New York Rangers season was the 69thseason for the franchise. With Mike Keenan off to St. Louis to coach the Blues, the Rangers hired Colin Campbell to lead the Rangers. Members of the 1994 Stanley Cup championship team Doug Lidster and Esa Tikkanen would join Keenan in St. Louis, as Lidster and Tikkanen were traded for Petr Nedved on July 24, 1994. Another member of the championship team, Glenn Anderson would sign with St. Louis as a free agent on February 13, 1995. On March 23, the team acquired Pat Verbeek through a trade with the Hartford Whalers. Verbeek would prove to be a handy addition to the club, scoring 10 goals in 19 games. The defending Cup champions finished the season 8th place in the Eastern Conference with a mediocre record of 22-23-3 for 47 points - just one point ahead of the Florida Panthers.
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.
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.
Game log[]
#
R
Date
Score
Opponent
Record
1
L
Jan 20, 1995
1–2
Buffalo Sabres
0–1–0
2
W
Jan 21, 1995
5–2
Montreal Canadiens
1–1–0
3
L
Jan 23, 1995
1–2
Boston Bruins
1–2–0
4
L
Jan 25, 1995
2–3
Pittsburgh Penguins
1–3–0
5
L
Jan 28, 1995
0–2
@ Quebec Nordiques
1–4–0
6
W
Jan 30, 1995
6–2
Ottawa Senators
2–4–0
7
L
Feb 1, 1995
3–4
@ Pittsburgh Penguins
2–5–0
8
T
Feb 2, 1995
3–3 OT
Tampa Bay Lightning
2–5–1
9
W
Feb 4, 1995
2–1
@ Ottawa Senators
3–5–1
10
W
Feb 8, 1995
5–4
Washington Capitals
4–5–1
11
L
Feb 9, 1995
1–4
@ New Jersey Devils
4–6–1
12
W
Feb 11, 1995
3–2
@ Tampa Bay Lightning
5–6–1
13
W
Feb 15, 1995
2–1
@ Buffalo Sabres
6–6–1
14
T
Feb 16, 1995
2–2 OT
Montreal Canadiens
6–6–2
15
L
Feb 18, 1995
2–5
@ Montreal Canadiens
6–7–2
16
W
Feb 20, 1995
3–1
@ Tampa Bay Lightning
7–7–2
17
W
Feb 21, 1995
5–3
@ Florida Panthers
8–7–2
18
L
Feb 24, 1995
1–2
Hartford Whalers
8–8–2
19
W
Feb 26, 1995
4–2
@ Buffalo Sabres
9–8–2
20
T
Feb 28, 1995
0–0 OT
Florida Panthers
9–8–3
21
W
Mar 1, 1995
5–2
@ Hartford Whalers
10–8–3
22
W
Mar 3, 1995
5–3
Philadelphia Flyers
11–8–3
23
L
Mar 5, 1995
2–4
@ Washington Capitals
11–9–3
24
W
Mar 6, 1995
4–3
Ottawa Senators
12–9–3
25
W
Mar 8, 1995
6–4
New Jersey Devils
13–9–3
26
L
Mar 11, 1995
1–3
@ Montreal Canadiens
13–10–3
27
L
Mar 15, 1995
3–4
Philadelphia Flyers
13–11–3
28
L
Mar 18, 1995
1–4
@ Washington Capitals
13–12–3
29
L
Mar 22, 1995
2–5
New Jersey Devils
13–13–3
30
L
Mar 23, 1995
0–1
@ New York Islanders
13–14–3
31
L
Mar 25, 1995
1–2
@ Quebec Nordiques
13–15–3
32
L
Mar 30, 1995
4–5
Quebec Nordiques
13–16–3
33
W
Apr 1, 1995
3–2
@ Boston Bruins
14–16–3
34
L
Apr 2, 1995
2–4
@ Philadelphia Flyers
14–17–3
35
W
Apr 5, 1995
5–0
@ Florida Panthers
15–17–3
36
L
Apr 7, 1995
3–4
New York Islanders
15–18–3
37
L
Apr 9, 1995
0–2
@ New Jersey Devils
15–19–3
38
W
Apr 12, 1995
3–1
Buffalo Sabres
16–19–3
39
W
Apr 14, 1995
5–3
Boston Bruins
17–19–3
40
W
Apr 16, 1995
3–2
@ New York Islanders
18–19–3
41
L
Apr 18, 1995
5–6
@ Pittsburgh Penguins
18–20–3
42
W
Apr 20, 1995
3–2
Hartford Whalers
19–20–3
43
L
Apr 23, 1995
4–5
@ Boston Bruins
19–21–3
44
W
Apr 24, 1995
5–4
Washington Capitals
20–21–3
45
W
Apr 26, 1995
6–4
Tampa Bay Lightning
21–21–3
46
L
Apr 28, 1995
2–4
New York Islanders
21–22–3
47
W
Apr 30, 1995
2–0
@ Philadelphia Flyers
22–22–3
48
L
May 2, 1995
3–4
Florida Panthers
22–23–3
Player stats[]
Forwards[]
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes
Player
GP
G
A
Pts
PIM
Defencemen[]
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes
Player
GP
G
A
Pts
PIM
Goaltending[]
Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average
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.[2]
Canada
Slovakia