94 Forever: The Night Madison Square Garden Shook So Hard They Could
i remember that night like it was last week, honest. twenty-nine years on and i can still tell you where i was standing, buddy's basement off dundas, twelve of us crammed around a tv the size of a shoebox, and when mess buried the third one the whole street woke up. neighbour bangin on the wall at midnight and we didn't even care. you watch as long as i have and you'll get it, you get maybe one or two nights like that in a lifetime, and '94 was ours.
and yes, dave's dad (different dave, rest him) still owes me a hundred bucks C$ on a bet from game 6. i've given up collecting. some debts you keep around for the memories 😄 thirty years of guarantee talk and nobody's come close since. mess didn't just talk that night, he carried the whole building on his back. no 94 forever thread goes by without me posting, and i'll keep doing it.
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
was 8 years old watching with my dad in our living room 🔥 he jumped so high he knocked his beer off the armrest... never seen him like that before tbh
One love, one side ❤️
Millie, your dad and my old man would've gotten along fine 😄 mine had a twenty with his brother-in-law on the Rangers missing the finals, and that third Messier goal cost him a homemade supper and the cheque, which he "forgot" about for years. Funny thing is I was seventeen, working a shift at the shop, radio on in the back, nearly dropped a ladder when Emrick called it. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it. Nights like that one don't come around twice.
Seen it all, lads.
Funny how BadBeat's dad and my uncle never settled up either. That '94 team just had a way of costing families money 😄 Honestly, comparing then and now, the difference is Messier willed Game 6 into existence; this current group has the skill but nobody's grabbed that guarantee-by-the-throat moment yet. Still, I'd take a few more regular season wins over another twenty-nine year wait, thanks very much.
I keep my own tables 📊
the night game 6 landed i was hauling a load somewhere near sudbury, listening on the old am radio in the cab, and i nearly drove into a ditch when mess buried the third one 😄 jack's right that nobody on the current roster grabs a moment like that, but back in my day captains earned those guarantees by bleeding for a decade first. Mess didn't talk big out of nowhere, he'd already carried a cup in edmonton. give the young fellas time to earn the right to open their mouths.
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
the night game 6 landed i was hauling a load somewhere near sudbury, listening on the old am radio in the cab, and i nearly drove into a ditch when mess buried the third one 😄 jack's right that nobody on the current rost…
@ValueHunter ha, near-sudbury radio nights are their own religion eh. messier taking that game personally was something else. fanatics got a point though — guarantee only counts if you cash it 😉
Careful now, you two are making it sound like nobody since '94 has ever shown guts, I'd argue a couple of current guys have had their moments, they just never got a guarantee attached to them. And for the record, my old man's twenty from that bet is still "in the mail" thirty years later 📊
Do the math before you argue.
"Guarantee-by-the-throat" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, Jack. Messier backed it up with a hat trick in an elimination game, that's why it lives on. If any current Ranger posted the same guarantee and went quiet for two periods, you'd all be calling for his head, guarantee or no. Show me the numbers on "moments grabbed" and we can talk; gut feeling about who has guts is just mood with extra steps.
And RideOrDie, your old man's twenty. Was that on the puck line or straight up? Because thirty years of "in the mail" at C$20 suggests he bet against Messier and never recovered. As a Montrealer I watched that run through my fingers too, so I can at least respect a debt honestly dodged.
@ValueHunter ha, near-sudbury radio nights are their own religion eh. messier taking that game personally was something else. fanatics got a point though — guarantee only counts if you cash it 😉
@KevReds don't laugh, guys, but I only ever seen that game on reruns and my hands still get sweaty 😅 fair point that a guarantee means nothing unless you cash it - so which current Ranger would you even trust to try it? 👀 cheers for the explanations in this thread btw, learning a ton 🙏