Regular season doesn't mean much. The playoffs are what counts. Cups are what count. That's why Pittsburgh fans don't care about the President's Trophy in 93. They lost against the Islanders in the playoffs and that's what mattered that year. The 91 and 92 teams had eight Hall of Famers on them. Eleven if you include Patrick, Bowman, and Johnson. 94 Rangers had five. The 92 team won ELEVEN games in a row on the way to the Cup. They had arguably the greatest player ever in Lemieux and the future greatest European player ever, Jagr. They had the best offensive defenseman in hockey, Coffey. They had arguably the best power forward in the game in Stevens. Of the current top 20 all time points leaders those teams had SIX of them. Either team would best the 94 Rangers in a seven game series. They had the Rangers' number. Beat them for the division in 91 and in the playoffs in 92. Beat them again in 96.
The 92 Penguins had 6 playoff roster Hall of Famers, not 8. And Trottier was completely done at that point. Plus, everyone knows Larmer should easily be in the Hall of Fame, so that argument is a wash.
The 92 and 96 Rangers were very different from the 94 Rangers. 94 Rangers went out and got guys like MacTavish, Anderson, Tikkanen and Larmer specifically to win a Stanley Cup. Those guys were through the wars and knew how to win in the playoffs. Then there were very good depth players like Matteau and Noonan and young talented russians Kovalev and Nemchinov.
Leetch and Zubov, the Hall of Fame NY defensemen, were both better than Murphy. They were one of the best back ends in NHL history. And young russian Alexander Karpotsev had just come on to the scene and was very solid.
Also, 94 Rangers had a much better coach than the 92 squad. Bowman was great, but so was Keenan having already been in the Final several times before. While Bowman beat Keenan in the 92 Final, 92 Chicago was a considerably weaker team than the 94 Rangers squad.
Yeah, Penguins won 11 in a row at the end. But they barely got out of the first round against Washington in 7 games (trailing that series 3 games to 1), and needed a lucky Francis goal to beat the Rangers (they were once again about to go down 3 games to 1 if not for the fluke Francis goal).
Rangers won their first 7 games of the playoffs in 94. They won every game by AT LEAST 3 goals and in some games DOUBLE that amount, crushing an Islanders team that beat the Penguins the year before and outscoring them 22-3! And that team had Turgeon.
Rangers weren't just winning, they were DOMINATING out of the gate. This coming off the heels of a regular season championship with the most wins in the league.
Additionally, in the playoffs the Rangers scored 81 goals in 1994 and gave up 50. Penguins scored 83 goals in 1992 and gave up 63. The 92 Penguins defense was unquestionably weaker than the 94 Rangers while offensively they were almost equal. Rangers were never outscored by any opponent in a 94 playoff series. Penguins were outscored 27-25 against Washington.
Also, the 92 Penguins entered into a playoff game trailing in the series 6 times. The 94 Rangers only entered into a playoff game trailing in the series 3 times.
Too much depth, experience and young talent on that 94 Rangers team for the 92 Penguins to handle. Plus Messier was on a mission, and Leetch was in God-Mode. Under Keenan his defense became very good (better than 92) while his offense was at Coffey-like levels. He would have feasted on the weaker Penguins defense.
There's no way the 92 Penguins win that series unless Mario and Jagr go bonkers. That'd be their only chance. 94 Rangers were more balanced and built to win in the playoffs. Aside from the 99 Stars, the 94 Rangers were the only team that decade to win the Presidents Trophy and the Cup the same year. They had too many guys with too many rings, and too much young talent.
