"Nineteen forty! 1940! 1940!" You could hear this chant in hockey arenas from Long Island to Vancouver. Nineteen forty, the last year the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup. Oh, there were close calls since. There were final-round losses in 1950 to Detroit, in '72 to Boston and in '79 to Montreal. There were the Emile "The Cat" Francis teams in the '60s and '70s powered by great players like Rod Gilbert, Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Eddie Giacomin. Still, the Rangers could not scale the mountain.

Just two years earlier, in 1992, the Broadway Blueshirts had the league's best record, only to see a series against Pittsburgh turn on a freak goal from the blue line. Fifty-four years of heartache for the team and its fans.

"Nineteen forty! 1940! Finally, in 1994, the Rangers did it, and, for a Ranger fan, in the sweetest of fashions. The team captures the President's trophy symbolizing the league's regular-season best record. In the first round of the playoffs, a Blueshirt four-game sweep of the hated Islanders. Then, after beating Washington, the Rangers survive a semi-final, seven-game war with the New Jersey Devils that ends on an overtime goal by Stephane Matteau. Finally, the Cup finals against Vancouver. In an ironic twist, the key moment of the series occurs in game four as New York Goalie Mike Richter atones for his faux-pas against Pittsburgh two years earlier. Richter stopped Vancouver's superstar Pavel Bure on a penalty shot, and three games later the 1940 chant would be no more.