Revenge is sweet for long suffering fans

When the New York Rangers came back from a four goal deficit to shock the Montreal Canadiens Saturday night, consider it revenge for a similar outcome over a decade ago when the Habs overcame a 0-5 start to beat the Blueshirts.

If you are a New York Rangers fan and you watched that game, you will never forget it.  It was the worst blown lead in the history of the franchise and a humiliating loss. It happened on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 in front of a sellout crowd of 21,273 delirious fans at the Bell Centre

As for the team itself, Henrik Lundqvist was the only Blueshirt who is still with the Rangers  and was one of the prime victims of the Canadiens that night.  Adam Fox may remember the game, it was a day after the young Rangers fan turned ten years old.  Kaapo Kakko was all of seven.

The Rangers had jumped out to a five goal lead with fifteen minutes left in the second period.  The Bell Centre was a morgue after they chased Carey Price from the game after he allowed three goals in the first 13:56.  Backup Cristobal Huet came in and allowed two more scores in the second period before the onslaught ended.

Brandon Dubinsky and Sean Avery scored within 14 seconds in the first period. Five minutes later, Brendan Shanahan scored the first of his two goals on the power play and the rout was on. Shanahan and Chris Drury added power play goals in the first five minutes of the second period when Chris Higgins took a double minor for high sticking.

That’s when the team stopped skating. Rangers coach Tom Renney called a timeout after Michael Ryder scored two goals in the second period to draw the Habs within 5-2 to no avail.   When Alexei Kovalev and Mark Streit scored within nine seconds of each other in the third, the Bell Centre was absolutely beserk.

Ex-Ranger Kovalev tied the score on the power play with less than four minutes left in the game. The fans were deafening when Marek Malik drew a penalty for hooking Sergei Kostitsyn.

The Rangers did escape with a point due to the tie score, but lost the shootout when Saku Koivu was the only player to succeed . Huet made saves on Shanahan and Drury and Jaromir Jagr had a chance to tie, but missed.  Henrik Lundqvist had stopped Andrei Markov before Koivu beat him.

It was the first time in their history that the Canadiens came back from a 5-0 deficit and the first time the Rangers had surrendered that kind of lead.  It’s hard to describe how loud that crowd was when Montreal mounted their comeback.  It was so loud that it had to shake the Rangers’ confidence and it is totally appropriate to say that the fans helped the Canadiens win that game.

And that’s what made the Rangers’ dramatic comeback Saturday so sweet for longtime Ranger fans. It took eleven years, but our Blueshirts finally taught the Habs and their annoying and loud fans a lesson.  And to make it even better, at least the Rangers came away with a point in 2008.  Saturday, the Canadiens ended up with a big fat zero.   Big thanks to the 2019-20 New York Rangers for finally getting even.  Better late then never.