With a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night, the New York Islanders were able to clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was a victory felt across the five boroughs, as it marked a rare occasion for New York-area sports that hasn't occurred in nearly 30 years.
With the Islanders clinching a playoff spot, all five of the greater New York City area's hockey and basketball teams -- the Islanders, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils in the NHL, and the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets in the NBA -- have made the playoffs for the first time since 1994.
The spring of 1994 was special for New York sports teams:
- The Rangers won the Stanley Cup to end a championship drought of more than 50 years -- going through the Islanders and Devils in the process.
- The Knicks made the NBA Finals but lost to the Houston Rockets.
The past decade in New York sports has been a frustrating one, as the city has not experienced a championship since the New York Giants won Super Bowl XLVI at the end of the 2011 NFL season.But over the past year, the city's teams have began to flex their might once more.
After the Rangers made the Eastern Conference Final and the Yankees advanced to the ALCS, the Giants ended a decade of futility by making the NFL playoffs and winning their Wild Card game against the Minnesota Vikings for their first playoff win since their last Super Bowl.
The lone exception so far in New York's sports renaissance has been the New York Jets, who are the only one of the city's teams in the four major sports to be excluded from the playoffs in the past year. After they collapsed from a 7-4 start to finish 7-10 and miss the playoffs, the Jets have taken center stage in the NFL offseason as they attempt to complete a trade for star quarterback Aaron Rodgers and build a superteam around him.