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Hockey history: The 1985-86 New York Rangers

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mike14

mike14

Rampage Sherpa
Jun 22, 2006
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Melbourne
The week break makes everything a bit dull, so tell me a story. In fact, tell me the story of the 85-86 Rangers team. My recent Rangers history (2000-) is pretty good, like all Rangers fan I know about the 93-94 Rangers team, and due to the 'All time greatest Rangers' project we did on here, I know about some of the bigger names of the clubs history. The 80s (or everything after the 79-80 season)however, don't really seem to rate a mention.

So, 85-86. The Rangers had been swept in the Division semis by the Flyers the year before, and Brooks was out as Head Coach. Ted Sator steps up behind the bench, in his first season as an NHL coach and takes the Rangers to an average NHL season where they go 36-38-7 for 78 points, finish 4th in the Division and scraping into the playoffs by 2 points.
Looking at the top 10 team scores that year, the team was a lead by un-drafted 22 year old (Mike Ridley) and 8 of the top 10 scores were 25 and under.
Was it perceived that we had a good young core?
What did we play like?
Was it an exciting season or was there not much interest as we seemed to be a very average side and there weren't many big names involved?
It seems that Pavelich and Larouche were injured for large parts of the season, would they have had much of an effect on our position in the standings?

In the playoffs we knock off the Division leading Flyers, followed by the 2nd place Caps, before falling to the Habs in the ECF. The Habs would go on to win the cup. Larouche lead the team in points and Ridley was 3rd.
Was it a case of the plucky underdog getting lucky, or were we a legitimacy good playoff team?
Did people give us a chance to knock off the Habs?

With the ECF appearance and the young guys heavily involved in the scoring, I assume spirits must of been high heading into the off season, yet Sator wouldn't last long into the next season and we wouldn't win a playoff round until 4 seasons later.
So what happened? Did we overachieve, make the wrong trades, draft poorly?

Also, I know next to nothing about Mike Ridley, but being your and leading the team in points and then being almost PPG in the next season, it seems odd that he'd be a trade target, yet he and Miller were shipped out for Carpenter.
Was this move supported by the fans at the time?

Thanks in advance to all those who answer, especially those that can remember it and can share their thoughts!
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we could of beaten Montreal in the ECF but these Rangers were a very young team and before the series started all they kept talking about was the Montreal forum and all the ghosts and silly stuff like that...you could tell they were just happy to be there at the time and lost the first 2 games in Montreal....Game 3 at MSG was a typical disaster, Rangers were all the over the habs but all we could muster was a tied game going into OT...in OT it was a complete domination by the Rangers, the shots were like 12-1 but a rookie goalie someone by the name of Patrick Roy stopped every shot including the kitchen sink...a faceoff deep in the Habs end occurred, Rangers won the draw cleanly back to the point but the puck bounced over a rut in the ice and went past the Rangers point man...another rookie someone named Claude Lemieux picked up the puck on a breakaway and scored the winning goal...a good season that went by the wayside.
 
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mike14 said:
The week break makes everything a bit dull, so tell me a story. In fact, tell me the story of the 85-86 Rangers team. My recent Rangers history (2000-) is pretty good, like all Rangers fan I know about the 93-94 Rangers team, and due to the 'All time greatest Rangers' project we did on here, I know about some of the bigger names of the clubs history. The 80s (or everything after the 79-80 season)however, don't really seem to rate a mention.

So, 85-86. The Rangers had been swept in the Division semis by the Flyers the year before, and Brooks was out as Head Coach. Ted Sator steps up behind the bench, in his first season as an NHL coach and takes the Rangers to an average NHL season where they go 36-38-7 for 78 points, finish 4th in the Division and scraping into the playoffs by 2 points.
Looking at the top 10 team scores that year, the team was a lead by un-drafted 22 year old (Mike Ridley) and 8 of the top 10 scores were 25 and under.
Was it perceived that we had a good young core?
What did we play like?
Was it an exciting season or was there not much interest as we seemed to be a very average side and there weren't many big names involved?
It seems that Pavelich and Larouche were injured for large parts of the season, would they have had much of an effect on our position in the standings?

In the playoffs we knock off the Division leading Flyers, followed by the 2nd place Caps, before falling to the Habs in the ECF. The Habs would go on to win the cup. Larouche lead the team in points and Ridley was 3rd.
Was it a case of the plucky underdog getting lucky, or were we a legitimacy good playoff team?
Did people give us a chance to knock off the Habs?

With the ECF appearance and the young guys heavily involved in the scoring, I assume spirits must of been high heading into the off season, yet Sator wouldn't last long into the next season and we wouldn't win a playoff round until 4 seasons later.
So what happened? Did we overachieve, make the wrong trades, draft poorly?

Also, I know next to nothing about Mike Ridley, but being your and leading the team in points and then being almost PPG in the next season, it seems odd that he'd be a trade target, yet he and Miller were shipped out for Carpenter.
Was this move supported by the fans at the time?

Thanks in advance to all those who answer, especially those that can remember it and can share their thoughts!
Click to expand...
Pierre wasn't injured. Sator sent him to the minors to send a message to him and the team. At least a half dozen players (more) literally hated Sator. Pav quit hockey rather than play for Sator the next season. Beck wanted almost nothing to do with Sator as well but he wanted to play in the playoffs. It was such a strange year because the team was not good and hated their coach but got on a great playoff roll in large part because of Beezer in goal and Larouche being outstanding when called up.
 
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NickyFotiu said:
Pierre wasn't injured. Sather sent him to the minors to send a message to him and the team. At least a half dozen players (more) literally hated Sather. Pav quit hockey rather than play for Sather the next season. Beck wanted almost nothing to do with Sather as well but he wanted to play in the playoffs. It was such a strange year because the team was not good and hated their coach but got on a great playoff roll in large part because of Beezer in goal and Larouche being outstanding when called up.
Click to expand...

Can't blame this on Sather......
 
Lost in all this, and often forgotten, was Reijo Ruotsalainen.

His departure left a sizable hole on the back end and his offense wouldn't be replaced until several years later by some kid the Rangers ended up drafting that summer.
 
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I loved that team. A young Ridley & Miller......the McPhee Tocchet playoff bout.......Larouche.........

Am still VERY bitter about the Ridley/Miller trade.
 
I remember Sandstrom being my favorite player, other than that my memory of that time period in general has faded.
 
The funny thing about Sandstrom is from his very early years he would talk about retiring young to go be a carpenter in Sweden. That made some folks like Espo very nervous. Then the guy ends up playing around 15 years on various teams. He was my favorite at that time as well. Boy did he take a beating with dirty crap from some teams like the Flyers.
 
By the way when I watch Buch skate sometimes I see some similar mannerisms to Sandstrom. I don't know if Buch has Sandstroms great slapshot or his toughness at this point in time but some similarity in how they stand while skating.
 
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NickyFotiu said:
Pierre wasn't injured. Sator sent him to the minors to send a message to him and the team. At least a half dozen players (more) literally hated Sator. Pav quit hockey rather than play for Sator the next season. Beck wanted almost nothing to do with Sator as well but he wanted to play in the playoffs. It was such a strange year because the team was not good and hated their coach but got on a great playoff roll in large part because of Beezer in goal and Larouche being outstanding when called up.
Click to expand...

thanks Nicky. Crazy to think that a coach would demote a player who scored like that when playing, for so long. Certainly wouldn't have picked that, or the whole squad basically hating the coach just from looking through the season stats.
 
mike14 said:
thanks Nicky. Crazy to think that a coach would demote a player who scored like that when playing, for so long. Certainly wouldn't have picked that, or the whole squad basically hating the coach just from looking through the season stats.
Click to expand...
Beck, Pav, Reijo, Willie Huber, Larouche, etc all off the top of my head had a problem with Sator but if you look at the stats Pierre played amazing once Sator finally relinquished and called him back up. You also should keep in mind the 80's had a lot more partying. Some guys overdid things so I can not say if Sator was justified or not.
 
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