Rangers, Devils, Islanders qualify for playoffs for 1st time since 2007

It has been 16 long years since the New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders all qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as they have this season.

That's not exactly a New York minute.
But here we are, for the first time since 2007, with every team in this hockey hotbed lacing up for the postseason, three of the 16 NHL playoff teams girding for what they hope is a marathon.
"The fever is so hot. Playoff time in New York is very special," former goalie John Vanbiesbrouck said this week, speaking of a massive market and three Metropolitan Division teams which are primed for anything.
The First Round will see the Rangers lock up with the Devils for the seventh time in the postseason; the Rangers hold a 4-2 edge, including their memorable seven-game 1994 Eastern Conference Final victory on their way to a seven-game Stanley Cup Final win against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Islanders have drawn the Carolina Hurricanes to begin, the second time those teams have met in the playoffs. Carolina swept to a 4-0 victory in a 2019 Second Round series.
"In metro New York, people don't love sports, they live sports," said Kevin Weekes, the NHL Network and ESPN broadcaster who like Vanbiesbrouck played goal for all three teams. "You're in the world's No. 1 market in a lot of different ways: sports, entertainment, music, fashion, Broadway, business, banking. There's so much going on in so many different industries that are among the best in the world. For hockey to have such a big hold on people's daily and professional lives, it's nuts."

Former Rangers goalie Kevin Weekes with the late Mr. Ranger, Rod Gilbert, at The Rink at Rockefeller Center for the 2018 Ronald McDonald House Skate With The Greats event. Taylor Hill, Getty Images
The Rangers are in the playoffs for the 62nd time since their birth, entering the NHL for the 1926-27 season. It's the 28th time in the postseason for the Islanders, who joined the League in 1972-73, the 23rd time for the Devils since moving to New Jersey for the 1983-84 season, the Colorado Rockies renamed upon moving east.
Combined, they have won the Stanley Cup 11 times: the Rangers in
1928
,
1933
,
1940
and
1994
; the Islanders consecutively from
1980
-
83
, and the Devils in
1995
,
2000
and
2003
.
New York playoff rivalry goes back nearly a century, the Rangers and long defunct New York/Brooklyn Americans meeting in quarterfinal series in 1929 and 1938.
The New York Daily News referred to both as "Subway Series," though "Corridor Series" might have been more accurate given that Madison Square Garden was the home arena of each team.
The Rangers won in 1929 but the Americans prevailed two games to one in 1938, winning Game 1 in double overtime, then clinching the series with a Game 3 victory that was decided in the fourth overtime period, to that time the longest game in NHL history.
Lorne Carr sent an exhausted crowd out into the wee hours of March 28 with his goal scored 180 minutes and 40 seconds into extra time, the Americans' 3-2 victory sending them to a semifinal which they'd lose 2-1 to the Chicago Black Hawks.

New York Rangers and New York Americans in 1938 action at Madison Square Garden. At right is the Americans' Lorne Carr, whose goal 40 seconds into the fourth overtime period in Game 3 of the quarterfinal eliminated the Rangers. Le Studio du hockey/Hockey Hall of Fame
In 2007, the Devils, Rangers and Islanders were grouped in the five-team Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference, respectively finishing first, third and fourth in the regular season.
New Jersey won a six-game quarterfinal against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Rangers swept the Atlanta Thrashers in four and the Islanders made an early exit, eliminated in five by the Buffalo Sabres. The Devils and Rangers were ousted in the semifinals, New Jersey in five games by the Ottawa Senators, the Rangers in six by the Sabres.
A total of 272 players have scored at least one point when skating for one of the three New York-region teams in playoff action against another, from the 32 points (13 goals, 19 assists) of former Rangers captain Mark Messier to the 78 who scored a single point each.
Twenty-three goalies have played for the Devils, Rangers or Islanders against each other in the postseason. Busiest has been Devils Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur with 28 (his 13 wins and 15 losses all against the Rangers), to Bob Sauve (a Devils win against the Islanders) and Weekes (a Rangers loss against the Devils).

New York Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist (left) and New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur shake hands following the Devils' 2012 Game 6 Eastern Conference Final victory. Bruce Bennett, Getty Images
Brodeur, today the Devils' executive vice-president of hockey operations, is among the many in the region delighted that all three teams have survived the 82-game regular season.
This is New Jersey's first playoff appearance since a First-Round exit in 2018, only their second following a six-game 2012 Stanley Cup Final loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
"Hockey in this area has grown so much," Brodeur said. "Obviously our fan base here has been hurting for a bit, not being part of the playoffs for so long. And just having all three teams have a chance to move on from the First Round and try to do some damage in the quest for winning a Stanley Cup is going to be great. It's going to be great for the area, the attention."
Vanbiesbrouck remembers the scorching competitive fires when his team met either of the other two in the New York market.
"It's probably unique to pro sports to have three teams within 30 or so miles of each other," he said. "And I can tell you, there are some great rivalries."
He would know. The 59-year-old native of Detroit played for the Rangers, Islanders and Devils, three of his five teams during a 20-season NHL career from 1981-2002. Including the playoffs, "Beezer" played 487 games for the Rangers, 44 for the Islanders and nine for the Devils, getting a look at the rivalries wearing three different jerseys.

John Vanbiesbrouck with the New York Islanders in 2000 and the New Jersey Devils in 2002. Jamie Squire, Allsport; Mitchell Layton, Getty Images Sport
Weekes played 47 games for the Rangers, 36 for the Islanders and 25 for the Devils during a 348-game NHL career from 1997-2009.
Eleven men have played for all three teams, Vanbiesbrouck the busiest goalie in the group. Forward Sergei Nemchinov, today a European scout for New Jersey, leads everyone with 860 games, including the postseason -- 470 for the Rangers, 249 for the Devils and 141 for the Islanders.
Since June 2018, Vanbiesbrouck has worked as assistant executive director of hockey operations for USA Hockey. As such, he's responsible for the entirety of the governing body's international efforts, including men's, women's and sled programs and the National Team Development Program.
He'll be busy at tournaments in Switzerland and Finland this spring and doesn't expect he'll drop into any of the action in the New York region unless one or more of the teams has a long run. But from long distance he'll cast a wistful eye at the madness, knowing the intensity it will have.
Vanbiesbrouck recalls, fondly or otherwise, epic net-front battles with the Devils' Claude Lemieux and the Islanders' Clark Gillies and Bob Nystrom.
"I knew that (Islanders) Brent and Duane Sutter were going to arrive hard at the net, and (Islanders defenseman) Denis Potvin had probably the best wrist shot in hockey, with (Boston Bruins') Ray Bourque," he said.

The New York Rangers celebrate the 1994 Stanley Cup championship, their most recent title, on June 14, 1994 following their Game 7 victory against the Vancouver Canucks. Doug MacLellan/Hockey Hall of Fame
"Then I got on the other side with the Islanders and Devils and saw the rivalries from a different perspective. You'd be battling not just the Rangers but also the crowd in the Garden, the most famous arena in the country."
Vanbiesbrouck and Weekes each point to three teams with different identities, arriving at this postseason with different structure but the potential for long runs. Both believe that allegiances will be split before and after the puck is dropped, fluid loyalties sure to see fans switching bandwagons because of choice and results.
"And you have a lot of hybrid households," Weekes said. "Your daughter may be an Islanders fan because she loves (center) Mathew Barzal and his game and she plays minor hockey on Long Island. Her mom and dad might have been from Queens or Brooklyn and they're Rangers fans. If your daughter is cheering for the Islanders, you can't tell her to turn the TV off.
"This is great for our league, and to showcase the market," he said of the region's prominent role in the playoffs. "You know the market pulls a ton of eyeballs. All three teams have their own unique legacies and generations of fans. Their teams are built differently now, which is awesome.
"There's a lot of superstar and star power across those three teams in the world's most influential market. That can only be great for the fans in the markets of those clubs, but more importantly the bandwidth it's able to capture beyond those markets for hockey fans around the world."
Top photo: John Vanbiesbrouck's 1990s New York skyline-themed mask and in a 1986 portrait at Madison Square Garden. Brian Winkler/Bruce Bennett, Getty Images
Stuart McComish of NHLStats and NHL.com staff writer Mike G. Morreale contributed to this report