# 1994–95 New York Rangers season

The 1994–95 New York Rangers season was the franchise's 69th season. 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 |
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.
Eastern Conference :
| R | | Div | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | Pts |
| 1 | Quebec Nordiques | NE | 48 | 30 | 13 | 5 | 185 | 134 | 65 |
| 2 | Philadelphia Flyers | AT | 48 | 28 | 16 | 4 | 150 | 132 | 60 |
| 3 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NE | 48 | 29 | 16 | 3 | 181 | 158 | 61 |
| 4 | Boston Bruins | NE | 48 | 27 | 18 | 3 | 150 | 127 | 57 |
| 5 | New Jersey Devils | AT | 48 | 22 | 18 | 8 | 136 | 121 | 52 |
| 6 | Washington Capitals | AT | 48 | 22 | 18 | 8 | 136 | 120 | 52 |
| 7 | Buffalo Sabres | NE | 48 | 22 | 19 | 7 | 130 | 119 | 51 |
| 8 | New York Rangers | AT | 48 | 22 | 23 | 3 | 139 | 134 | 47 |
| 9 | Florida Panthers | AT | 48 | 20 | 22 | 6 | 115 | 127 | 46 |
| 10 | Hartford Whalers | NE | 48 | 19 | 24 | 5 | 127 | 141 | 43 |
| 11 | Montreal Canadiens | NE | 48 | 18 | 23 | 7 | 125 | 148 | 43 |
| 12 | Tampa Bay Lightning | AT | 48 | 17 | 28 | 3 | 120 | 144 | 37 |
| 13 | New York Islanders | AT | 48 | 15 | 28 | 5 | 126 | 158 | 35 |
| 14 | Ottawa Senators | NE | 48 | 9 | 34 | 5 | 117 | 174 | 23 |
Divisions: AT – Atlantic, NE – Northeast
bold – Qualified for playoffs

## Playoffs

The Rangers faced the first-place Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the playoffs. They narrowly lost Game 1, 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 four games to two. 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 at 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 eight 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.

## Schedule and results
### Regular season

1994–95 regular season :
January: 2–4–0 (home: 2–3–0; road: 0–1–0)
GameDateOpponentScoreRecordRecap
1January 20, 1995Buffalo Sabres2–10–1–0Recap
2January 21, 1995Montreal Canadiens5–21–1–0Recap
3January 23, 1995Boston Bruins2–11–2–0Recap
4January 25, 1995Pittsburgh Penguins3–21–3–0Recap
5January 28, 1995@ Quebec Nordiques2–01–4–0Recap
6January 30, 1995Ottawa Senators6–22–4–0Recap :
February: 7–4–3 (home: 1–1–3; road: 6–3–0)
GameDateOpponentScoreRecordRecap
7February 1, 1995@ Pittsburgh Penguins4–32–5–0Recap
8February 2, 1995Tampa Bay Lightning3–3 OT2–5–1Recap
9February 4, 1995@ Ottawa Senators2–13–5–1Recap
10February 8, 1995Washington Capitals5–44–5–1Recap
11February 9, 1995@ New Jersey Devils4–14–6–1Recap
12February 11, 1995@ Tampa Bay Lightning3–25–6–1Recap
13February 15, 1995@ Buffalo Sabres2–16–6–1Recap
14February 16, 1995Montreal Canadiens2–2 OT6–6–2Recap
15February 18, 1995@ Montreal Canadiens5–26–7–2Recap
16February 20, 1995@ Tampa Bay Lightning3–17–7–2Recap
17February 21, 1995@ Florida Panthers5–38–7–2Recap
18February 24, 1995Hartford Whalers2–18–8–2Recap
19February 26, 1995@ Buffalo Sabres4–29–8–2Recap
20February 28, 1995Florida Panthers0–0 OT9–8–3Recap :
March: 4–8–0 (home: 3–3–0; road: 1–5–0)
GameDateOpponentScoreRecordRecap
21March 1, 1995@ Hartford Whalers5–210–8–3Recap
22March 3, 1995Philadelphia Flyers5–311–8–3Recap
23March 5, 1995@ Washington Capitals4–211–9–3Recap
24March 6, 1995Ottawa Senators4–312–9–3Recap
25March 8, 1995New Jersey Devils6–413–9–3Recap
26March 11, 1995@ Montreal Canadiens3–113–10–3Recap
27March 15, 1995Philadelphia Flyers4–313–11–3Recap
28March 18, 1995@ Washington Capitals4–113–12–3Recap
29March 22, 1995New Jersey Devils5–213–13–3Recap
30March 23, 1995@ New York Islanders1–013–14–3Recap
31March 25, 1995@ Quebec Nordiques2–113–15–3Recap
32March 30, 1995Quebec Nordiques5–413–16–3Recap :
April: 9–6–0 (home: 5–2–0; road: 4–4–0)
GameDateOpponentScoreRecordRecap
33April 1, 1995@ Boston Bruins3–214–16–3Recap
34April 2, 1995@ Philadelphia Flyers4–214–17–3Recap
35April 5, 1995@ Florida Panthers5–015–17–3Recap
36April 7, 1995New York Islanders4–315–18–3Recap
37April 9, 1995@ New Jersey Devils2–015–19–3Recap
38April 12, 1995Buffalo Sabres3–116–19–3Recap
39April 14, 1995Boston Bruins5–317–19–3Recap
40April 16, 1995@ New York Islanders3–218–19–3Recap
41April 18, 1995@ Pittsburgh Penguins6–518–20–3Recap
42April 20, 1995Hartford Whalers3–219–20–3Recap
43April 23, 1995@ Boston Bruins5–419–21–3Recap
44April 24, 1995Washington Capitals5–420–21–3Recap
45April 26, 1995Tampa Bay Lightning6–421–21–3Recap
46April 28, 1995New York Islanders4–221–22–3Recap
47April 30, 1995@ Philadelphia Flyers2–022–22–3Recap :
May: 0–1–0 (home: 0–1–0; road: 0–0–0)
GameDateOpponentScoreRecordRecap
48May 2, 1995Florida Panthers4–322–23–3Recap :
Legend:
  Win (2 points)
  Loss (0 points)
  Tie (1 point) :

### Playoffs

1995 Stanley Cup playoffs :
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals vs. (1) Quebec Nordiques – Rangers win 4–2
GameDateOpponentScoreSeriesRecap
1May 6, 1995@ Quebec Nordiques5–4Nordiques lead 1–0Recap
2May 8, 1995@ Quebec Nordiques8–3Series tied 1–1Recap
3May 10, 1995Quebec Nordiques4–3Rangers lead 2–1Recap
4May 12, 1995Quebec Nordiques3–2 OTRangers lead 3–1Recap
5May 14, 1995@ Quebec Nordiques4–2Rangers lead 3–2Recap
6May 16, 1995Quebec Nordiques4–2Rangers win 4–2Recap :
Eastern Conference Semifinals vs. (2) Philadelphia Flyers – Flyers win 4–0
GameDateOpponentScoreSeriesRecap
1May 21, 1995@ Philadelphia Flyers5–4 OTFlyers lead 1–0Recap
2May 22, 1995@ Philadelphia Flyers4–3 OTFlyers lead 2–0Recap
3May 24, 1995Philadelphia Flyers5–2Flyers lead 3–0Recap
4May 26, 1995Philadelphia Flyers4–1Flyers win 4–0Recap :
Legend:
  Win
  Loss :

## Player statistics
### Scoring

* Position abbreviations: C = Center; D = Defense; G = Goaltender; LW = Left Wing; RW = Right Wing
* † = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Rangers only.
* ‡ = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Rangers only.
| No. | Player | Pos | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs |
| No. | Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | +/- | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | +/- | PIM |
| 11 | Mark Messier | C | 46 | 14 | 39 | 53 | 8 | 40 | 10 | 3 | 10 | 13 | −11 | 8 |
| 2 | Brian Leetch | D | 48 | 9 | 32 | 41 | 0 | 18 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 14 | −1 | 8 |
| 21 | Sergei Zubov | D | 38 | 10 | 26 | 36 | −2 | 18 | 10 | 3 | 8 | 11 | −9 | 2 |
| 9 | Adam Graves | LW | 47 | 17 | 14 | 31 | 9 | 51 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 8 | −13 | 8 |
| 28 | Steve Larmer | RW | 47 | 14 | 15 | 29 | 8 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −5 | 6 |
| 27 | Alexei Kovalev | C | 48 | 13 | 15 | 28 | −6 | 30 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 2 | 10 |
| 16 | Brian Noonan | RW | 45 | 14 | 13 | 27 | −3 | 26 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 10 | Petr Nedved | C | 46 | 11 | 12 | 23 | −1 | 26 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | −4 | 6 |
| 17 | Pat Verbeek† | RW | 19 | 10 | 5 | 15 | −2 | 18 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 10 | −8 | 20 |
| 13 | Sergei Nemchinov | LW | 47 | 7 | 6 | 13 | −6 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 2 |
| 25 | Alexander Karpovtsev | D | 47 | 4 | 8 | 12 | −4 | 30 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 0 |
| 24 | Jay Wells | D | 43 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 36 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −4 | 8 |
| 32 | Stephane Matteau | LW | 41 | 3 | 5 | 8 | −8 | 25 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −1 | 10 |
| 4 | Kevin Lowe | D | 44 | 1 | 7 | 8 | −2 | 58 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | −5 | 12 |
| 23 | Jeff Beukeboom | D | 44 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 70 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 |
| 19 | Nick Kypreos | LW | 40 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 93 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| 20 | Mark Osborne | LW | 37 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −2 | 19 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | Eddie Olczyk‡ | LW | 20 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 26 | Joe Kocur | RW | 48 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −4 | 71 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 5 | Mattias Norstrom | D | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 0 |
| 15 | Darren Langdon | LW | 18 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 62 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 30 | Glenn Healy | G | 17 | 0 | 2 | 2 | | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0 |
| 29 | Joby Messier | D | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6 | Glen Featherstone‡ | D | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 39 | Shawn McCosh | C | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 8 | Jean-Yves Roy | RW | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 18 | Mike Hartman | LW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 37 | Daniel Lacroix† | C | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 22 | Nathan LaFayette† | C | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 2 |
| 14 | Troy Loney† | LW | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | Mike Richter | G | 35 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0 |

### Goaltending

| No. | Player | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Regular season | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs | Playoffs |
| No. | Player | GP | W | L | T | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI | GP | W | L | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI |
| 35 | Mike Richter | 35 | 14 | 17 | 2 | 884 | 97 | 2.92 | .890 | 2 | 1993 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 189 | 23 | 3.60 | .878 | 0 | 384 |
| 30 | Glenn Healy | 17 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 377 | 35 | 2.36 | .907 | 1 | 888 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 93 | 13 | 3.39 | .860 | 0 | 230 |

## Awards and records
### Awards

| Type | Award/honor | Recipient |
| League (annual) | Lester Patrick Trophy | Brian Mullen |
| Team | Ceil Saidel Memorial Award | Adam Graves |
| Team | "Crumb Bum" Award | Mark Messier |
| Team | Frank Boucher Trophy | Mark Messier |
| Team | Good Guy Award | Kevin Lowe |
| Team | Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award | Mattias Norstrom |
| Team | Players' Player Award | Adam Graves |
| Team | Rangers MVP | Mark Messier |
| Team | Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award | Mark Messier |

### Milestones

| Milestone | Player | Date |
| First game | Jean-Yves Roy | January 25, 1995 |
| First game | Darren Langdon | February 18, 1995 |
| 1,000th point | Steve Larmer | March 8, 1995 |
| 1,000th game played | Steve Larmer | April 20, 1995 |
| 1,000th game played | Jay Wells | April 30, 1995 |

## 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 Nedved.
* 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 in exchange for RW Pat Verbeek.

## 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 | 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 | CSKA Moscow (Russia) |
| 8 | 208 | Craig Anderson | D | United States | Park Center Senior High School (USHS-MN) |
| 9 | 209 | Vitali Yeremeyev | G | Kazakhstan | HC Kamenogorsk (Russia) |
| 9 | 234 | Eric Boulton | LW | Canada | Oshawa Generals (OHL) |
| 10 | 260 | Radoslav Kropac | F | Slovakia | Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) |
| 11 | 267 | Jamie Butt | LW | Canada | Tacoma Rockets (WHL) |
| 11 | 286 | Kim Johnsson | D | Sweden | Malmö IF (SEL) |