The Rangers are exactly where they don’t want to be, though history could very well still be on their side.
While the Blueshirts trail the Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final 3-2 after a Game 5 loss at the Garden on Thursday night, they have some promising — and rather spooky — connecting them to the 1994 team.
That Stanley Cup-winning team not only trailed going into Game 6 of its third-round series with the rival Devils, but also there are some striking similarities with how they got there.
Much like the current iteration of the Rangers, that 1994 squad lost Games 1, 4 and 5 while winning 2 and 3.
With that team trailing going into a potential Devils clincher in New Jersey in Game 6, Mark Messier made his now-famous guarantee that was immortalized with a back page of The Post.
“We’re going to go in there and win Game 6. We know we’re going to go in and win Game 6 and bring it back for Game 7,” Messier said then.
Not only did the Rangers win Game 6, but Messier notched a natural hat trick in the third period to force a Game 7 at MSG.
From there, the Blueshirts won in double overtime on Stephane Matteau’s goal, lifting the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final, where they’d eventually knock off the Canucks.
Matteau, speaking to The Post’s Mark Cannizzaro earlier in May, said he didn’t believe in the wild natural occurrences — a local earthquake and solar eclipse, which occurred both this year and 1994 — having anything to do with the Rangers’ fate, but he did believe this team has what it takes to win it.
“I don’t believe in the earthquake and the eclipse, I just believe in the team,’’ Matteau said. “They have a very good chance to win the Stanley Cup. We should not be afraid to say the words ‘Stanley Cup.’ This is not a rebuild.’’
There might not be a guarantee, but the Rangers fan can hang onto some hope heading into Game 6 in Florida.
