Rangers End Drought, Now Want More

Of all the professional sports franchises that date back to World War II, none went as long between division or conference championships as the New York Rangers.

That's right, none.

In any professional sport.

The Rangers finished first overall in the 1941-42 National Hockey League regular season. They lost to Toronto in the Stanley Cup playoffs, then waited 48 years - almost a half-century - before they could celebrate another championship of any kind.

Even the Chicago Cubs, generally considered the all-time hard-luck franchise, can claim one National League pennant in that time (1945). The Cleveland Indians, with two American League pennants and one world championship in the same period, seem like a dynasty by comparison.

The Rangers just muddled along until this season, when they finally climbed to the top of the Patrick Division.

OK, so it wasn't exactly Mount Everest. The division was more like a mole hill: Just two of the six teams, the Rangers and New Jersey Devils, finished with winning records.

Still, the fact remains that the Rangers actually won something.

Only a heartless cad - or a disgruntled Flyers fan - would point out that the Rangers actually won fewer games this season (36) than either Winnipeg or Hartford, teams that finished third and fourth in their respective divisions.

At this point the Rangers will take any kind of pennant, no matter how tattered.

"I started coming to Ranger games with my father in the '50s," said Steve Donato, 45, a New York printer interviewed at last week's Rangers-Devils game in the Meadowlands. "I almost gave up last year. It was just so frustrating. They kept changing coaches and players, but they never could get over the hump.

"This season maybe the law of averages finally went their way. They made some moves that actually worked out. The team played with a lot of heart. It was really nice. I could finally wear this )Rangers jersey) around and not get laughed at."

To put the Rangers' drought in some perspective, consider this: The last time the team finished first in anything, its best players were Lynn Patrick (father of current Pittsburgh coach and general manager Craig Patrick) and Bryan Hextall (grandfather of Flyers goalie Ron Hextall).

That's three hockey generations ago.

Put another way, that benchmark 1941-42 season was two years before the center-ice red line was introduced to the NHL. It also was five years before a teenage winger named Gordie Howe debuted in Detroit.

We're talking ancient history, folks.