Knicks' Playoff Run is Part of New York Sports Serendipity

The postseason efforts of the New York Knicks and their metropolitan counterparts could make for a very fun ... or heartbreaking ... spring and summer in the tri-state are.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Party like it's 1994, New York City.

The NYC metropolitan area will have a sizable prescience on the playoff brackets of both the NBA and NHL when their respective postseasons open later this month. With all five tri-state teams repped among the major leagues that hold their postseasons in the spring and summer, these editions will mark the first to fully feature the New York Knicks, Islanders, and Rangers, as well as the Brooklyn Nets and New Jersey Devils since the memorable antics of 1994.

Such an invasion was clinched on Wednesday night when the Islanders sealed a spot in the hockey festivities with a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. 

Manhattan's Madison Square Garden roommates, the Knicks and Rangers, certainly wouldn't mind penning a sequel to their epic exploits from '94, albeit with one adjustment: both sides reached their respective championship finals, with the Rangers ending a 54-year title drought with a seven-game victory over the Vancouver Canucks, which followed an epic seven-game clash with the Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals. 

On the hardwood, the Knicks dispatched the Nets (then based in New Jersey) in their best-of-five Eastern opening round before disposing of the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers in seven. An epic NBA Finals series against the Houston Rockets likewise went the distance but the Knicks fell just short, dropping Game 7 at The Summit by a 90-84 final.

Duplicating that success won't be easy: the fifth-seeded Knicks face former offseason target Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers in a best-of-seven set that begins on Saturday (6 p.m. ET, ESPN). The winner likely faces the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, two years removed from an NBA title, in round two. On the ice, the Rangers are locked into the third seed in the Metropolitan Division portion, ensuring a matchup with either the Devils or Carolina Hurricanes, depending on how each side's final game goes on Thursday night. The NHL is currently overseen by the Boston Bruins, whose respective tallies of 64 wins and 133 points set new NHL records. 

Early projections suggest that the athletic fun across the city could be just beginning: the New York Mets (7-6) and Yankees (8-4) are off to strong starts with MLB respectively underway in Queens and The Bronx while the WNBA's New York Liberty have assembled a group described as a "superteam" in Brooklyn. In the fall, the New York Giants ended a five-year playoff drought while hope reigns for the New York Jets thanks to a supposed deal that would give MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers a new shade of green.

The Giants are the last metropolitan team among the so-called "big four" professional sports leagues to bring home a championship, doing so with a victory over New England in Super Bowl XLVI. Beyond that, another kind of football club, New York City FC of Major League Soccer, brought the MLS Cup home to Yankee Stadium in 2021. 

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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