Getty The New York Rangers need to beat the Florida Panthers in back-to-back games to make the Finals.
As highly competitive as hockey gets entering the final stages of the Stanley Cup playoffs, New York Rangers legend Mark Messier doesn’t think solving the game is hard–at all.
Facing elimination at the hands of the Florida Panthers for the first time in Game 6, scheduled for Saturday, June 1, Messier believes the Rangers only have one “simple” thing to do to force Game 7.
“It gets really simple at this time of year,” Messier told the New York Post’s Mark Cannizzaro on Friday, May 31. “You’ve got to believe you can win.”
Of course, that’s easy to say for someone who lifted the Stanley Cup 30 years ago leading the Rangers to their fourth and last championship in 1994.
And as bizarre as it is, those Rangers and the current team found themselves in the same position: trailing the conference finals 3-2 before going (or hoping to go, in 2024) the distance. The 1994 squad overcame that deficit against the New Jersey Devils, edging them in seven games before beating the Vancouver Canucks.
Mark Messier Guaranteed A Historic Comeback
Back in 1994, with the Rangers down 3-2 in the conference finals matchup against the Devils, Messier promised a comeback to all New Yorkers ahead of Game 6.
“We’re going to go in there and win Game 6. We know we’re going to go in and win Game 6 and bring it back for Game 7,” Messier said then, via the New York Post.
Speaking to the Post ahead of Game 6 on June 1, Messier admitted that his guarantee was a “calculated” one.
“It was calculated,” Messier said. “I knew we were all going to be driving over on the bus to New Jersey together and everybody would be reading the same paper.
“Now, whether it helped us or not, I don’t know. But the way the team responded, I think we all bit down on our mouth bits a little bit tighter a little bit harder and came up with a win.”
That was a close team, and Messier thinks the current Rangers need to push as a unit if they want to repeat what the franchise did three decades before them on their way to winning the cup.
Messier thinks the Rangers must improve if they want to return from behind.
“They’re good enough to win, but they’ve got to play better and they can’t expect the Panthers to come back to them,” Messier said. “They’ve got to figure out a way to match [the Panthers’] intensity, their tenacity, their desire, their hunger.”
“It doesn’t matter what just happened. It’s one game they’ve got to think about. That’s the way I’d be focusing on right now.”
Paul Bissonnette Is Still Betting On A Panthers Win
While Messier thinks his team can pull off the miracle comeback, former NHL winger and current TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette isn’t sure that’s the case.
He still believes the Panthers will beat the Rangers once in the next two games to clinch a place in the finals for the second consecutive season.
“When the Panthers start rolling they just seem to take over..
I’m not discounting the Rangers but it feels like Florida is gonna take this series”
“[The Panthers] are firing on all cylinders, and when they want to dominate a game and when they’re rolling, they just seem to take over,” Bissonnette commented during a live appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on May 31. “So right now, the better team is winning, and that’s Florida.
With the Game 5 win, the Panthers moved over the Rangers and are entering Game 6 with a 3-2 series lead. Florida lost back-to-back games after winning Game 1, but they are coming off two consecutive victories. Just one more win will push them through the conference finals.
“I’m not discounting the Rangers but it feels like Florida is gonna take this series,” Bissonnette said.
The Rangers will have to beat the Panthers on the road on Saturday, June 1, if they want to bring hockey back to New York for a final win-or-go-home Game 7 and a chance to win the Stanley Cup 30 years after they did for the last time.
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Rangers’ Legend Has 1 Simple Tip to Complete Series Comeback