Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 30 (end of third quarter)

This is day number 30 of the 40 til 40 series of blog entries leading to July 10 and my 40th birthday.  In my last entry I talked about the 1940 Stanley Cup Finals.  Today I’m going to explain the Curse of 1940, a curse that affected the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League for 54 years.

The Curse of 1940 was a superstitious explanation as to why the New York Rangers failed to win the Stanley Cup between 1940 and 1994.

Before I get to the origins of the curse, let me tell you about the New York Rangers.  The team began play in 1926 and in their second season, won their first Stanley Cup over the Montreal Maroons.  In 1933 and 1940, they won two more Stanley Cups, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs in both.

During the 1939-40 season, the mortgage on Madison Square Garden was fully paid off.  Following the Rangers’ victory in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Madison Square Garden management burned the mortgage papers in the bowl of the Stanley Cup.  This incident led some hockey fans to believe that the Stanley Cup was considered “sacred” and had been “desecrated”, leading the “hockey gods” to put a curse on the Rangers.

But another theory came about from Red Dutton, who was the coach and general manager of the New York Americans, the first team to actually play in Madison Square Garden.  But the original owner of the Americans was a bootlegger named Bill Dwyer and he found the going difficult after the end of Prohibition, and the National Hockey League took over ownership in 1937.  After the 1941-42 season, the Americans were affected by World War II, so the team’s operations were suspended for the duration of the war.  After the war concluded, Red Dutton, who had been the league president, resigned to revive the Americans, but the league and Madison Square Garden management reneged on their promise to revive the franchise.  Bitter, Dutton declared the Rangers would never win the Stanley Cup for the rest of his life, which ended in 1987 upon his death at age 88 (year number 47 of the Curse of 1940).

There were several odd ways the Curse of 1940 worked.  Madison Square Garden made more money with the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus utilizing the arena in the spring, forcing the Rangers and the NBA’s New York Knicks to utilize different arenas during their leagues’ respective playoffs, the worst possible time.  It was during a time when it was not possible to configure arenas in a way to allow both a circus and a hockey or basketball game on the same day, which was the reason why the New York Rangers lost the 1950 Stanley Cup finals to the Detroit Red Wings.  The Rangers’ futility was due to league corruption and favoritism during the Original Six era as Detroit Red Wings owner James Norris also had a controlling stake in the rival Chicago Blackhawks as well as the Rangers.  The NHL also held territorial drafts giving the Red Wings, the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs significant recruiting advantages with far more developed junior hockey programs.  The first Amateur Draft would not be held until 1966.

In 1972, after the Rangers lost the Stanley Cup finals to Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins, the NHL expanded to Atlanta as well as Long Island, New York.  The new team on Long Island was the New York Islanders, a move meant to keep the rival World Hockey Association out of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

The World Hockey Association had a team in New York (first called the Raiders then the Golden Blades), who played two seasons at Madison Square Garden after officials in Nassau County refused to acknowledge the renegade league.  The Raiders/Golden Blades franchise drew much less attendance than the Rangers and Islanders, leading to a poor performance on the ice, and by 1974, had relocated to Cherry Hill, New Jersey where they became the Jersey Knights.  The World Hockey Association never returned to New York, as the league merged with the NHL in 1979.

In 1980, the Islanders won their first of four consecutive Stanley Cups.  In 1981, during an Islanders sweep of the Rangers, Islanders fans began mocking the rival Rangers with a chant of “1940! 1940!”, to remind them when they last won the Cup.  Fans in other cities began to pick up the chant.  But in 1982, the Colorado Rockies relocated to East Rutherford, New Jersey, where they became the New Jersey Devils.  Also, during the 1980s, the idea of a “Curse of 1940” began to take hold, most notably with Red Dutton’s death in 1987 and the occasional publication of the photograph of the 1940 burning of the Madison Square Garden mortgage in the Stanley Cup.

In 1991-92, the Rangers had the league’s most outstanding record, winning their first Presidents’ Trophy, but lost in the Patrick Division finals to the defending (and eventual repeat) champion Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.  The turning point in the series came in game four at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena when Ron Francis took a slap shot from the blue line that fooled Rangers goaltender Mike Richter.  The Rangers lost the game 5-4 in sudden death overtime and ultimately the series.  In addition, Adam Graves had been suspended for the remainder of the series after game three after a review of a slash he delivered to Mario Lemieux in game two.  The following season, the Rangers finished in last place in the Patrick Division thanks to injuries to Brian Leetch and ultimately cost head coach Roger Nielson his job.

By 1994, the Rangers had not won the Stanley Cup in 53 years.  During that span, the following teams in the New York metropolitan area had won championships:

• New York Islanders (4 Stanley Cups)

• New York Yankees (14 World Series)

• New York Mets (2 World Series)

• New York Giants baseball (1 World Series prior to relocation fo San Francisco)

• Brooklyn Dodgers (1 World Series prior to relocation to Los Angeles)

• New York Giants football (4 championships, including 2 Super Bowls)

• New York Jets (1 Super Bowl)

• New York Knicks (2 NBA championships)

• New York Nets (2 ABA championships)

In addition, ten other NHL teams had won Stanley Cups:

• Montreal Canadiens (20)

• Toronto Maple Leafs (10)

• Detroit Red Wings (5)

• Edmonton Oilers (5)

• New York Islanders (4)

• Boston Bruins (3)

• Philadelphia Flyers (2)

• Pittsburgh Penguins (2)

• Calgary Flames (1)

• Chicago Blackhawks (1)

The Rangers won their second Presidents’ Trophy in 1993-94, and swept the rival Islanders and defeated the Washington Capitals in five games to reach the Eastern Conference Finals against the rival New Jersey Devils.  Devils fans had picked up the 1940! chant from Islanders fans, plus the seating capacity of Brendan Byrne Arena was 19,040.  After the Rangers and Devils split the first four games, the Devils won game five to take a 3-2 series lead.  Mark Messier, the Rangers captain, came out in the New York media with a Joe Namath-like guarantee that the Rangers would win game six and send the series back to Madison Square Garden for game seven.  The New York Post and the New York Daily News published the words by Mark Messier:

“We know we’re going in there to win game six and bring it back for game seven.  We feel we can win it and we feel we are going to win it.”

The Rangers won the game 4-2, with Messier backing up his guarantee with a natural hat trick.  Back at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers and Devils went into sudden death overtime in game 7 tied at 1 apiece.  In the second extra period, the Rangers Stephane Matteau won the Prince of Wales Trophy with a wraparound goal that fooled Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur.

The Rangers advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Vancouver Canucks and held a 3-2 lead late in game seven.  The Rangers started celebrating by jumping onto the ice thinking the game was over, but the Canucks touched up for an icing call with 1.1 seconds left, forcing a half second to be put back on the clock for a faceoff in the Rangers zone.  Craig MacTavish won the draw, then teamed up with Mark Messier to interfere with Pavel Bure.  Time ran out and the celebration at Madison Square Garden began in earnest as the Curse of 1940, which lasted nearly 20,000 days, was over.  Rangers fans began to chant 1940!, officially burying the Curse and beginning a curse that to this day has prevented any Canadian teams from winning the Stanley Cup.  The New York Post celebrated the victory with a headline of “IT’S OURS!”

Rangers announcer Sam Rosen proclaimed at the final buzzer of game seven:  “The waiting is over!  The New York Rangers are the Stanley Cup champions!  And this one will last a lifetime!”  Yet the Rangers since then have not won a Stanley Cup, leading to the idea of a “94 and never more” curse (hence the 1994 triumph lasting a lifetime), started by Devils fans between 1995 and 2004.  Even more damning during this same period was that the Devils won three Stanley Cups.  Other teams that have won Stanley Cups since 1995 were:

• Detroit Red Wings (4)

• Pittsburgh Penguins (3)

• Chicago Blackhawks (3)

• Colorado Avalanche (3)

• Tampa Bay Lightning (3)

• Florida Panthers (2)

• Los Angeles Kings (2)

• Carolina Hurricanes (1)

• Anaheim Ducks (1)

• Dallas Stars (1)

• Boston Bruins (1)

• Washington Capitals (1)

• St. Louis Blues (1)

• Vegas Golden Knights (1)