Congratulations are in order for the New York Rangers, who have eliminated the Montréal Canadiens in 6 games and will now likely face the Ottawa Senators in the Atlantic Division Final.
We are nearing the end of Henrik Lundqvist's prime, and he has precious little time to finally earn his first Stanley Cup, which brings me to a former Ranger whose name does not appear on hockey's most sacred chalice, Hall Of Famer Marcel Dionne.
For a long while, the Rangers were the team where old stars made their final big-contract stop before retiring, from Mark Messier's second run to Wayne Gretzky to Doug Harvey to Pavel Bure, and almost Jaromir Jagr, too, had he remained exiled in the KHL instead of coming back across the pond.
Dionne had requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings, claiming he did not want to be part of a rebuild; in two and a half seasons with the Rangers, he was ousted twice in the first round and failed to make the playoffs once - they didn't rebuild or tank, they just sucked and underachieved. He wasn't so bad himself, posting 42 goals, 56 assists and 98 total points in 118 games in New York, but those aren't the type of numbers that got him an Art Ross, two Lester B. Pearson and two Lady Byng trophies, as well as a Canada Cup title (1976) and three World Championship bronze medals (1978, 1983 and 1986), including the Best Forward award in 1978.
Here he is in Ranger Blue, with a matching game-worn jersey swatch:
That's the "Black" version of card #M-41 from In The Game's 2010-11 Decades - The 1980s set.
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