Rite of Spring 2013 (NHL Playoffs): "You have no fear of the underdog, that's why you will not survive."

[dbadefense1990]

June 3, 1993

Game 2 Kings-Canadiens Gretzky v. the overtime warrior Habs. Marty McSorley's illegal stick. It was the first Stanley Cup Final game I ever watched. I was almost 6 years old. Watched it with my dad in a hotel room outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and my hockey love affair was born.

It's really hard to believe 20 years have already gone by since the most infamous on-ice moment in Kings history. For a recap, LA led the series 1-0 and led Game 2, 2-1, with less than two minutes left at the old Montreal Forum; hang on and the Kings would probably have two Stanley Cups by now.

But during a stop, Habs coach Jaques Demers called for a measurement of McSorley's stick, eventually deemed to be too curved, and along with pulling Roy, Montreal had a 6-4 to play with. And boom, Desjardis becomes the 1st defenseman to get a hat trick in a Cup Final game, and the Habs win in overtime, 3-2, to tie the series (for the record, John LeClair did an illegal screen of Hrudey in the crease on Desjardins' tying goal). Meanwhile, LA never gets another lead at any point of the series after that McSorley penalty. And by the time Game 5 ended, Montreal won the game, the series and the cup, 4-1.

Though I've now seen a cup championship in my lifetime (and feel cringed at the thought of losing this year's repeat chances against powerful Chicago), I can't help wonder how things would have turned out had those Kings finished the job and won the cup. It's like a reminder of bad memories every time I see that "1993 Campbell Conference Champions" banner, rather than thinking of pleasant ones from that epic series with the Maple Leafs. It's something forever engraved in hockey infamy, something no future amount of cup championships by the Kings can ever erase.

On the other side, that illegal stick call 20 years ago began the "Curse of Marty McSorley," where the hockey Gods have screwed all Canadian teams from winning the cup, while punishing Montreal exclusively by not even reaching the Cup Final. So there's some justice to this.

[IceCap]

June 3, 1993

Game 2 Kings-Canadiens Gretzky v. the overtime warrior Habs. Marty McSorley's illegal stick. It was the first Stanley Cup Final game I ever watched. I was almost 6 years old. Watched it with my dad in a hotel room outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and my hockey love affair was born.

It's really hard to believe 20 years have already gone by since the most infamous on-ice moment in Kings history. For a recap, LA led the series 1-0 and led Game 2, 2-1, with less than two minutes left at the old Montreal Forum; hang on and the Kings would probably have two Stanley Cups by now.

But during a stop, Habs coach Jaques Demers called for a measurement of McSorley's stick, eventually deemed to be too curved, and along with pulling Roy, Montreal had a 6-4 to play with. And boom, Desjardis becomes the 1st defenseman to get a hat trick in a Cup Final game, and the Habs win in overtime, 3-2, to tie the series (for the record, John LeClair did an illegal screen of Hrudey in the crease on Desjardins' tying goal). Meanwhile, LA never gets another lead at any point of the series after that McSorley penalty. And by the time Game 5 ended, Montreal won the game, the series and the cup, 4-1.

Though I've now seen a cup championship in my lifetime (and feel cringed at the thought of losing this year's repeat chances against powerful Chicago), I can't help wonder how things would have turned out had those Kings finished the job and won the cup. It's like a reminder of bad memories every time I see that "1993 Campbell Conference Champions" banner, rather than thinking of pleasant ones from that epic series with the Maple Leafs. It's something forever engraved in hockey infamy, something no future amount of cup championships by the Kings can ever erase.

On the other side, that illegal stick call 20 years ago began the "Curse of Marty McSorley," where the hockey Gods have screwed all Canadian teams from winning the cup, while punishing Montreal exclusively by not even reaching the Cup Final. So there's some justice to this.

Yeah, well it's hard to feel sorry for the Kings considering how the 1993 Western Conference Finals went down. So given that you have gotten to see a Cup in your lifetime maybe you should get over it?

[Kramerica Industries]

I guess Toronto doesn't get included since they haven't played in the Final since 1967?

Yeah, well it's hard to feel sorry for the Kings considering how the 1993 Western Conference Finals went down. So given that you have gotten to see a Cup in your lifetime maybe you should get over it?

Well, this can't possibly be what you're referring to, can it?

[IceCap]

EDIT- That would be the event, yes.

Kings fans like to call foul on McSorley's stick being measured, but they were only there because they got a lucky non-call. Stop complaining about a penalty your guy deserved to get.

Given that the Kings have won a Cup since then you would think any (wrongfully) hurt feelings over game two of the 1993 SCF would have been dealt with.

On the other side, that illegal stick call 20 years ago began the "Curse of Marty McSorley," where the hockey Gods have screwed all Canadian teams from winning the cup, while punishing Montreal exclusively by not even reaching the Cup Final. So there's some justice to this.

McSorley's stick was illegal. Your guy broke the rules, got penalized, and the other team took advantage. There was no injustice in that McSorley penalty, if anything there was justice.

Given how LA played the rest of the series I have to think that Montreal would have won the Cup regardless of how game two ended.

Also Marty McSorley is a piece of human garbage. The idea that the "hockey gods" or any sort of higher power would do anything on his behalf is laughable.

[dbadefense1990]

Yeah, well it's hard to feel sorry for the Kings considering how the 1993 Western Conference Finals went down. So given that you have gotten to see a Cup in your lifetime maybe you should get over it?

First off, I am one of those "glass half-empty" people, where no matter how many good things happen to everything around me, including sports, images and visuals of the few bad moments burn my memory in a worse and more stinging fashion. If a team wins 99 of 100 times, I will get enraged and scarred for life worse-off for the 1 time that team loses.

Second, I get the feeling that the Kings-Leafs Game 6 ending and of Frasier's missed penalty call has the same degree of scrutiny as Game 6 of the Lakers-Kings 2002 West Finals. Both involving teams trying to end long title series-appearance droughts to an LA team in an LA venue in a Game 6, and leading that series 3 games to 2. Both involved close affairs, before the officials meddled in the way, to the degree of full-blown screw job proportions. Such screw jobs have had such a devastating effect, that those teams (Leafs, Sac Kings), despite having a Game 7 at home, never could recover and lost classic games to those LA teams.

[Kramerica Industries]

It was also damn brave of Jacques Demers to ask for that measurement because, if I'm not mistaken, a stick measurement that turns up clean results in a penalty call (unsportsmanlike conduct?) on the Canadiens there, which would've pretty much ended that game and probably the series.

There was an old Youtube video that explained so much of this, but it got nuked quite some time ago. In fact, the video I posted above is probably the only one out there on Youtube of the Desjardins OT hat trick goal.

First off, I am one of those "glass half-empty" people, where no matter how many good things happen to everything around me, including sports, images and visuals of the few bad moments burn my memory in a worse and more stinging fashion. If a team wins 99 of 100 times, I will get enraged and scarred for life worse-off for the 1 time that team loses.

Well, that's kind of a problem, isn't it?

Besides, according to your profile, you were, what, three when the Leafs and Kings met in the '93 WCF? I mean, just how much can you remember from that, and how much can you really be hurt by something that barely happened in your lifetime? I mean, sure, I'm not exactly the happiest whenever the 1955 or 1960 World Series topics get brought up, but they happened long before my existence, so I really can't be mad about what happened.

Right now, the Kings are probably at their current golden point in franchise history. You (and every other LA Kings fan) should be enjoying the hell out of this after their long period of decadence between 2003 and 2009.

[Sport]

It was also damn brave of Jacques Demers to ask for that measurement because, if I'm not mistaken, a stick measurement that turns up clean results in a penalty call (unsportsmanlike conduct?) on the Canadiens there, which would've pretty much ended that game and probably the series.

There was an old Youtube video that explained so much of this, but it got nuked quite some time ago. In fact, the video I posted above is probably the only one out there on Youtube of the Desjardins OT hat trick goal.

It wasn't that brave. The Canadiens equipment staff snuck into LA's lockerroom and measured their sticks. Demers had that in his pocket the entire game and facing a 2-0 hole heading back to LA he figured that was a good time to use it.

It's still incredible that after losing game 1 to Quebec in OT they went on to win the next 10 times they were in overtime, including the 3 in the finals. An NHL overtime is basically a 50-50 proposition so to put that kind of run together is remarkable.

edit:

Here's a good video

[dbadefense1990]

I guess Toronto doesn't get included since they haven't played in the Final since 1967?

Well, Toronto has it's own curse to deal with for blowing water since '67.*

The "McSorely Curse" is just an addition to whatever they already have.

*I'll let you other people decide on a name for that curse

[IceCap]

Yeah, well it's hard to feel sorry for the Kings considering how the 1993 Western Conference Finals went down. So given that you have gotten to see a Cup in your lifetime maybe you should get over it?

First off, I am one of those "glass half-empty" people, where no matter how many good things happen to everything around me, including sports, images and visuals of the few bad moments burn my memory in a worse and more stinging fashion. If a team wins 99 of 100 times, I will get enraged and scarred for life worse-off for the 1 time that team loses.

Well that sounds like a great way to be a miserable sports fan, eh? If the Leafs manage to win a Cup in my lifetime I promise you I'll let the 1993 Campbell Conference Finals go

Second, I get the feeling that the Kings-Leafs Game 6 ending and of Frasier's missed penalty call has the same degree of scrutiny as Game 6 of the Lakers-Kings 2002 West Finals. Both involving teams trying to end long title series-appearance droughts to an LA team in an LA venue in a Game 6, and leading that series 3 games to 2. Both involved close affairs, before the officials meddled in the way, to the degree of full-blown screw job proportions. Such screw jobs have had such a devastating effect, that those teams (Leafs, Sac Kings), despite having a Game 7 at home, never could recover and lost classic games to those LA teams.

Pretty much, yeah. Gretzky also scored the game winning goal shortly after that non-call. Had he been given the five minute major and game misconduct such an action warranted he obviously wouldn't have been able to score, and the Leafs would have had a five minute 5-4 powerplay in overtime in a game where they could have won the series. See why people up here tend to get pissed off about Kerry Fraser's bumbling ineptitude in that game? It's one thing to loose because the other team was better. It's quite another to loose when the officials hand the other team every opportunity to win.

The "McSorely Curse" is just an addition to whatever they already have.

Again, explain this curse. McSorley's stick was illegal. How was LA wronged by having that penalty called against them?

[Kramerica Industries]

It was also damn brave of Jacques Demers to ask for that measurement because, if I'm not mistaken, a stick measurement that turns up clean results in a penalty call (unsportsmanlike conduct?) on the Canadiens there, which would've pretty much ended that game and probably the series.

There was an old Youtube video that explained so much of this, but it got nuked quite some time ago. In fact, the video I posted above is probably the only one out there on Youtube of the Desjardins OT hat trick goal.

It wasn't that brave. The Canadiens equipment staff snuck into LA's lockerroom and measured their sticks. Demers had that in his pocket the entire game and facing a 2-0 hole heading back to LA he figured that was a good time to use it.

It's still incredible that after losing game 1 to Quebec in OT they went on to win the next 10 times they were in overtime, including the 3 in the finals. An NHL overtime is basically a 50-50 proposition so to put that kind of run together is remarkable.

That video also used to be on Youtube. Scott Young scored the winner in that game.

Damn what I would give to be back in May 2008 to look at these zapped videos again.

Also, what I would give to see the prospect of a provincial playoff series again between Montreal and Quebec City.

--

And I never knew anything like that about the McSorely stick measurement. Interesting.

[dbadefense1990]

McSorley's stick was illegal. Your guy broke the rules, got penalized, and the other team took advantage. There was no injustice in that McSorley penalty, if anything there was justice.

Given how LA played the rest of the series I have to think that Montreal would have won the Cup regardless of how game two ended.

In retrospect, thanks to the power of YouTube, I could now see that in the long run, it was more of a matter of Patrick Roy going all beast-mode in those playoffs. My original composition of that 1993 Cup Final was word-of-mouth from my family, friends and other Kings fans, and their point of view made it look like the Kings were unanimous favorites against the Habs and still choked that series away. But thanks to technology, those 10 straight overtime wins by Montreal, all in that postseason unbelievably, look mightily impressive to me, and I now have great appreciation to everything that happened in that postseason. Still, though, it hurts.

And second, I read a while ago that some of those Kings players, several years after that infamous Game 2 when they wanted to finally open up on what happened, had suspicions that Montreal Forum workers and collaborated to hide-off illegal sticks on the Kings bench, so that the Kings wouldn't know the legal and illegal sticks used, and that Demers knew which sticks were too curved, to signal refs and to call a penalty when needed. Fate just picked McSorely, just picked the last two minutes of Game 2, and just picked Desjardins to score the tying and winning goals.

[dbadefense1990]

The "McSorely Curse" is just an addition to whatever they already have.

Again, explain this curse. McSorley's stick was illegal. How was LA wronged by having that penalty called against them?

It's actually the "Curse of the Illegal Stick from Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Final series." But that's too long to phrase. I could have also called it the "Curse of Jacques Demers' Gamesmanship." But who thinks of the illegal stick call when they say Demers' name?

However, anytime someone spews the name "Marty McSorely" to any hockey fan, the very 1st thing said in relation is usually the illegal stick call. So that's why I named Canada's painful jinx of not winning a cup since 1993 after Marty. The flashpoint of Canada's inability to grab control of the Stanley Cup is the event that happened 20 years ago today.

And if this was double jeopardy, the "McSorely Curse" harmed the Kings via Bruce McNall's bankruptcy and jailing for fraud, and nearly permanently paralyzing the team. So there's that.

[ninersdd]

Don't people also think of McSorley for when he clubbed Breshear in 2000?

[Kramerica Industries]

Really?

Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind is when McSorely tried to decapitate Donald Brashear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvDk7jtNNhc

[dbadefense1990]

Second, I get the feeling that the Kings-Leafs Game 6 ending and of Frasier's missed penalty call has the same degree of scrutiny as Game 6 of the Lakers-Kings 2002 West Finals. Both involving teams trying to end long title series-appearance droughts to an LA team in an LA venue in a Game 6, and leading that series 3 games to 2. Both involved close affairs, before the officials meddled in the way, to the degree of full-blown screw job proportions. Such screw jobs have had such a devastating effect, that those teams (Leafs, Sac Kings), despite having a Game 7 at home, never could recover and lost classic games to those LA teams.

Pretty much, yeah. Gretzky also scored the game winning goal shortly after that non-call. Had he been given the five minute major and game misconduct such an action warranted he obviously wouldn't have been able to score, and the Leafs would have had a five minute 5-4 powerplay in overtime in a game where they could have won the series. See why people up here tend to get pissed off about Kerry Fraser's bumbling ineptitude in that game? It's one thing to loose because the other team was better. It's quite another to loose when the officials hand the other team every opportunity to win.

Not to mention the Great Western Forum went dead silent after Wendel Clark tied Game 6 with his hat trick goal with less than 2 minutes left in regulation.*

Man did those Maple Leafs have the series by their claws, had not been for Frasier (ironically, the same referee who was involved in the illegal stick call a week later).

*thanks to YouTube and Wikipedia for providing the information on this to beef up this post

[dbadefense1990]

First off, I am one of those "glass half-empty" people, where no matter how many good things happen to everything around me, including sports, images and visuals of the few bad moments burn my memory in a worse and more stinging fashion. If a team wins 99 of 100 times, I will get enraged and scarred for life worse-off for the 1 time that team loses.

Well, that's kind of a problem, isn't it?

Besides, according to your profile, you were, what, three when the Leafs and Kings met in the '93 WCF? I mean, just how much can you remember from that, and how much can you really be hurt by something that barely happened in your lifetime? I mean, sure, I'm not exactly the happiest whenever the 1955 or 1960 World Series topics get brought up, but they happened long before my existence, so I really can't be mad about what happened.

Then that just means that I had great nurturers when I was growing up. The way my cousins, uncles and brothers enshrined me with everything hockey and other sports have made me the person I am today. That, and the fact that I was whipped-lashed into having to know everything about sports for my high school journalism class and school newspaper. Despite our sports page being 4-5 stories related to our school and 1 being a general sports page (from actual major leagues), it was hard to please a faculty editor who also knew a lot of sports, herself (husband was the Lacrosse coach and a Kings season ticket holder).

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

It was also damn brave of Jacques Demers to ask for that measurement because, if I'm not mistaken, a stick measurement that turns up clean results in a penalty call (unsportsmanlike conduct?) on the Canadiens there, which would've pretty much ended that game and probably the series.

There was an old Youtube video that explained so much of this, but it got nuked quite some time ago. In fact, the video I posted above is probably the only one out there on Youtube of the Desjardins OT hat trick goal.

First off, I am one of those "glass half-empty" people, where no matter how many good things happen to everything around me, including sports, images and visuals of the few bad moments burn my memory in a worse and more stinging fashion. If a team wins 99 of 100 times, I will get enraged and scarred for life worse-off for the 1 time that team loses.

Well, that's kind of a problem, isn't it?

Besides, according to your profile, you were, what, three when the Leafs and Kings met in the '93 WCF? I mean, just how much can you remember from that, and how much can you really be hurt by something that barely happened in your lifetime? I mean, sure, I'm not exactly the happiest whenever the 1955 or 1960 World Series topics get brought up, but they happened long before my existence, so I really can't be mad about what happened.

Right now, the Kings are probably at their current golden point in franchise history. You (and every other LA Kings fan) should be enjoying the hell out of this after their long period of decadence between 2003 and 2009.

hell i'm 31 and I vaguely remember 89 to 93. Most of my recollection is of the Giants, Redskins and Cowboys winning the Super Bowl in a 4 year time frame.

[TorinK29]

It's a hard decision whether I enjoy HNIC tonight or 22 MInutes before the hockey game. But I'm trying to do work so their both equally bad.

They should have HNIC tonight before a game, shouldn't they?

[TorinK29]

well, that was fast. Nice assist Carosby...

[Kramerica Industries]

Disastrous start for Pittsburgh.