1993 - 94 NHL season The 1993 – 94 NHL season was the 77th regular season of the National Hockey League . Twenty - six teams each played 84 games . The New York Rangers were the Stanley Cup champions . It was the Rangers ' fourth championship . The spectacular play of Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres ushered in a new era of goaltending dominance in the NHL . Only three teams reached the 300 - goal plateau , and only one team , the Detroit Red Wings , averaged more than four goals scored per game . Goaltenders combined for 99 shutouts during the regular season , a mark that broke the all - time regular - season record of 85 set in 1974 - 75 . League business . For this season , the names of the conferences were changed from Campbell and Wales to Western and Eastern respectively , and the divisions ' names were changed from Adams , Patrick , Norris , and Smythe to Northeast , Atlantic , Central , and Pacific respectively . Each division had changes . The Northeast Division would welcome the Pittsburgh Penguins , previously from the Patrick Division . The Atlantic Division would welcome the newcomer Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning , previously from the Norris Division . The Central Division would welcome the Winnipeg Jets , previously from the Smythe Division . The Pacific Division would welcome the newcomer Mighty Ducks of Anaheim . New league commissioner Gary Bettman , who had previously worked in the National Basketball Association ( NBA ) , thought the old names could be confusing to non - traditional fans and believed that a change to geographically - named divisions , as used in the NBA and most other North American professional sports , would be more easily understandable to new fans . In addition , the playoff format was slightly altered to resemble that of the NBA . Whereas the playoffs had previously been bracketed and seeded by division , they were now broken down only by conference : the division winners were seeded one - two by order of point finish , then the top six remaining teams in the conference were seeded three through eight . However , unlike the NBA , the NHL matches the highest - seeded winners against the lowest - seeded winners in the second round . In order to reduce the number of long trips to and from the West Coast , whenever a Central Division team played a Pacific Division team in the playoffs , the format was 2 – 3 – 2 rather than the traditional 2 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 1 , a format which lasted only for the 1993 – 94 season . Regular season . Final standings . The division first - place finishers qualify for the playoffs as 1 - 2 seeding . The next six per conference are the teams with the six best records of the non - division winners . Playoffs . For the first time , all four former WHA teams ( Edmonton , Hartford , Quebec , and Winnipeg ) failed to make the playoffs in the same year . Final . The Final pitted the New York Rangers , seeking to win their first Cup since 1940 , versus the Vancouver Canucks , looking for their first - ever Cup win . The series was hard - fought and went the full seven games . The Rangers took a 3 – 1 series lead , but the Canucks won the next two to force a game seven in New York . The Rangers won the game 3 – 2 to win their fourth Stanley Cup . NHL awards . The NHL awards presentation took place on June 16 , 1994 . Debuts . The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1993 – 94 ( listed with their first team , asterisk ( * ) marks debut in playoffs ) : Last games . The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1993 – 94 ( listed with their last team ) : 1994 trading deadline . Trading deadline : March 21 , 1994 . Neutral site games . There were a series of neutral - site games in this season which created a few interesting scenarios : In total , 26 such games were played :