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With a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday evening, the New York Islanders have been capable of clinch a berth within the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was a victory felt throughout the 5 boroughs, because it marked a uncommon event for New York-area sports activities that hasn’t occurred in practically 30 years.
With the Islanders clinching a playoff spot, all 5 of the larger New York City space’s hockey and basketball groups — the Islanders, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils within the NHL, and the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets within the NBA — have made the playoffs for the primary time since 1994.
The spring of 1994 was particular for New York sports activities groups:
The Rangers received the Stanley Cup to finish a championship drought of greater than 50 years — going by means of the Islanders and Devils within the course of.The Knicks made the NBA Finals however misplaced to the Houston Rockets.
The previous decade in New York sports activities has been a irritating one, as town has not skilled a championship for the reason that New York Giants received Super Bowl XLVI on the finish of the 2011 NFL season.But over the previous 12 months, town’s groups have started to flex their may as soon as extra.
After the Rangers made the Eastern Conference Final and the Yankees superior to the ALCS, the Giants ended a decade of futility by making the NFL playoffs and successful their Wild Card recreation towards the Minnesota Vikings for his or her first playoff win since their final Super Bowl.
The lone exception to this point in New York’s sports activities renaissance has been the New York Jets, who’re the one one of many metropolis’s groups within the 4 main sports activities to be excluded from the playoffs previously 12 months. After they collapsed from a 7-4 begin to end 7-10 and miss the playoffs, the Jets have taken heart stage within the NFL offseason as they try to finish a commerce for star quarterback Aaron Rodgers and construct a superteam round him.
