Twenty years ago, captain Mark Messier guaranteed a victory against the New Jersey Devils and it became the symbol of the No. 1-seeded New York Rangers' march to the Stanley Cup championship.
Today, the Rangers are back in the Stanley Cup Final and no one guaranteed them anything.
The Rangers are an unlikely finalist, the fifth-best team in the Eastern Conference, a squad that started 3-6 on a season-launching nine-game road trip necessitated by the remodeling of Madison Square Garden.
When the Rangers finished off a six-game ousting of the Montreal Canadiens with a 1-0 win on Thursday, it was hard to remember that 11 months ago this team fired coach John Tortorella, primarily over a mutiny caused by his tough-love tactics. The Rangers seemed to have lost the love of the game.
Kevin Allen, USA TODAY Sports 12 a.m. EDT May 30, 2014
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