Marcos Cannizzaro
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Posted May 31, 2024 at 6:43 pm ET
The Captain has spoken.
“It gets really simple this time of year,” Mark Messier told The Post by phone Friday afternoon, on the eve of the Rangers’ Game 6 against the Panthers Saturday night in Florida. “You have to believe you can win.”
The Panthers, who put the Rangers behind 3-2 in the Eastern Conference final with a 3-2 victory Thursday night at the Garden, have spent most of these five games raising doubts in the minds of the Presidents Trophy. winners.
Messier, who famously captained the ’94 Rangers team that was the last to hoist the Stanley Cup and parade the goblet down Broadway, has been watching his former team from afar, mostly in the television studio where he has been. analyzing the Stanley Cup playoffs for KeynoteUSA. .
The Rangers are in a 3-2 series in the Eastern Conference finals. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
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And all along, he’s been quietly rooting for this group to do what his iconic 1994 team did 30 years ago.
Messier said he sees stark parallels with the respective struggles of the two teams 30 years apart as the Rangers enter Game 6 facing elimination, the same way his 1994 team went to New Jersey with a 3-2 deficit. in the series before beating the Devils to come back. to the Garden, where they would survive and advance to the Cup final.
On the May 25 back page of The Post, Messier’s famous words screamed, “WE WILL WIN TONIGHT.”
Mark Messier said he sees some parallels between this team and the 1994 team. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
It was a real, live guarantee from Joe Namath, and Messier and the Rangers, of course, would back up his words that night, and then some.
“It was calculated,” Messier said of his guarantee. “Because I knew we were all going to ride the bus together to New Jersey and we would all read the same newspaper.
“As a captain, you are always monitoring the team and what they need, when they need to be pushed, when they need to be pampered, hugged, loved, all the things you are monitoring all the time.
“I knew how close we were and we needed to find a way to win a game, so I was willing to do or say anything if I thought it would help us. Now, whether it helped us or not, I don’t know. But the way the team responded, I think we all bit our mouths a little harder and came out with a win.”
Mark Messier said the Rangers need to play better to turn things around in the Eastern Conference finals. Paul J. Bereswill
Messier said he made the guarantee “because I wanted the players to know we could win.”
“We have shown it all year,” he added. “Any big game we had, we answered the bell. “We won all the big games we needed to that year and there was no reason why we couldn’t win that game.”
Messier made no guarantees Friday by phone between shots during an afternoon round of golf, but that’s what the Captain wants this group to believe.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Rangers in the NHL Playoffs
This Rangers team, which set an NHL record with 34 comeback wins this season, has answered the bell time and time again.
“That’s what you have to remember,” Messier said. “At this point, you throw all the numbers out the window. I don’t care who scored and who didn’t. This is just another chance to do something special, and that’s how you have to look at it with the Rangers this year.
“It doesn’t matter what just happened. It’s a game they have to think about. “That’s the way I would focus right now.”
The Rangers are preparing for Saturday’s Game 6 in Florida. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
Messier vividly remembered those moments before Game 6 in Jersey in 1994.
“For us, being down 3-2, we couldn’t expect New Jersey to come back to us,” he said. “We weren’t playing badly. But we had to find a way to play better. So in order to beat them, we had to find a way to play better. These Rangers are in the same kind of situation. They have to figure out how to play better for 60 minutes.
“Belief is this powerful emotion for a team. For a man, you have to believe that you can win. And not just two, three or four guys who think you can win. Everyone has to believe it.
“That was the genesis of why I said what I said: I was trying to get everyone in the right mindset going into a game we had to win.”
When asked if he sees the type of team in these Rangers that can overcome a 3-2 deficit with a view to elimination from the Cup, Messier said yes.
Igor Shesterkin kept the Rangers going in this series. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
Because?
“Because they play as a team,” he said. “That’s what I love about them. That’s why it’s an easy team to root for. That’s how we were in ’94. We may not have been the most skilled team, but we were the epitome of a team. And I love that about the Rangers this year. They really play for each other and you can see it in their body language on the ice and after games.
“They’ve gotten punched in the nose a few times trying to get to this point right now, and this is another hurdle they have to overcome. There is simply no straight line to the Stanley Cup. You will be tested at all times. This is another test for them and they have to work hard.
“They are good enough to win, but they have to play better and they can’t expect the Panthers to come back to them. They have to find a way to match (the Panthers’) intensity, their tenacity, their desire, their hunger. All the things we’ve seen in this series and that Florida has done to the Rangers has to match that.”
The Captain has spoken.
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