Brian Leetch changed all that.
From the very first shift he took as a New York Ranger, I knew we would end the curse sometime. We went from also-rans to division champions, from wannabes to the team holding the President's Cup Trophy. And then in 1994, everything came together for one truly magic season. Leetch was simply amazing during the 1994 playoffs and became the first American to ever win the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP. To those older, Leetch gave a reminder of how Bobby Orr used to dominate games. To me, he gave the best playoff performance I had ever seen.
An announcer on the radio put it best when he said that Rangers fans love guys like Messier and Gretzky, but Leetch was their own and that made him special. The Rangers were always criticized for trying to "buy" the Cup (even in the Salary Cap era we still hear that nonsense) but nobody could criticize us about Leetch. He was drafted as a Ranger and played 17 of his 18 years with us. Sadly, he was traded at the end and that was a mistake. Guys like Leetch that WANT to play an entire career with one team should have earned the right to do so. Hearing him in interviews today you can tell he's still very bitter about that experience.
I'll never forget his return to the Garden wearing a Boston Bruins jersey. The crowd gave him a "Brian Leetch (clap clap)" cheer taken from the way the crowds at Yankee Stadium greet the players before the game. If you looked closely, you could see Brian fighting away the tears.
They say hockey is one of the few things that can make grown men cry. It's a religion to us. As word finally came that Leetch was confirmed to enter the Hall, memories of 1994 flooded my brain and I had to fight back the tears. Those days will always seem just like yesterday to me. I remember the incredible run through the playoffs – beating our arch rivals, the Islanders, in one of the most impressive four-game sweeps of all-time; going through the Capitals, who had ended our playoff runs so many times during my lifetime; and, of course, the dramatic series with the New Jersey Devils that included double-overtime wins and the Messier guarantee. In between the days of the actual Finals, the world was engrossed in the OJ Simpson nonsense and the Knicks were racing through their own playoffs on route to the Finals as well. Meanwhile, the headlines in the NY papers proved we were a hockey town after all. The Rangers dominated the media and put hockey on a pedestal it had never seen before. A tougher than expected Finals against Vancouver only made the win that much sweeter.
I remember getting to the city early for the Stanley Cup Parade and a cop who saw me wearing my jersey joked, "1940". I said, "not this year, not again..."
All my life I had waited for the Rangers to cruise down the "Canyon of Heroes". There were times when I never thought I'd see the day, but my doubt subsided when Leetch joined our team. I was so confident that 1994 would be our year that I told my girlfriend we'd get married if the Rangers won the Cup. We were married the month after the parade. She still wonders what would have happened if the Rangers had lost game seven...
Non-hockey fans may not understand the sport or why hockey fans are so passionate about the game, but they might understand why I have such a bond with Leetch. He was my Mickey Mantle, a home-grown superstar that you grew up with. Just as Mick had all of the talent in the world, but had to battle injuries and left Yankees fans to wonder just how great he could have been, Leetch suffered through a playoff-drought in his final years as a Ranger taking him out of the big games where he always played his best. I'll always wonder if we might have been able to snare another Cup or two if we could only have made the playoffs a few more times. In the end, Leetch will be remembered mostly for 1994 and 1996, the year he led the United States to their World Cup of Hockey win.
It was fifteen years ago this July that my wife and I celebrated our honeymoon in Toronto to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame and celebrate the win. Adam Graves and Nik Kypreos were also in the city celebrating their own honeymoons that same week. We’ll be going back in November to see Brian enter the Hall and I'll never be so proud of any New York Ranger. He helped break the curse. He was the one. He was my Mickey Mantle and will always be.
