There are at least 1,940 reasons why the Rangers were destined/or determined to win.

Here are just a few:

* Former Oilers Messier, Kevin Lowe, Anderson, MacTavish, Graves, Jeff Beukeboom and Esa Tikkanen and 26 Stanley Cup rings made for experience the Canucks could not match.

* Brian Leetch, the fifth defenseman to be named playoff MVP and first since Al MacInnis in 1989, was so effective jumping into the offense that the Canucks talked about putting a shadow on him.

* Richter, who was chosen over John Vanbiesbrouck when the Rangers knew they were going to lose a goalie in the expansion draft, had four key saves when the Rangers trailed, 2-0, in the second period of Game 4 before his stop on Pavel Bure's penalty shot. He constantly kept the Rangers in the series.

* Messier's leadership was one thing, but the Canucks could not find anyone to match him. Coach Pat Quinn joked about wanting to have 25 guys hit Messier if the League would let him dress five extra guys. Messier also had an effect on Trevor Linden, who had helped the Canucks win 11 of 13 games going into the Finals but never got untracked playing against Messier.

* The Rangers' power play wasn't the greatest in the series, but it had two important goals in Game 7.

* It was the first time a Russian name had been engraved in the Cup -- and Alexei Kovalev, Sergei Nemchinov, Sergei Zubov and Alexander Karpovtsev were all key contributors to a championship they learned about on the job.

* Keenan's confrontational defense kept the Canucks backing away instead of aggressively winning the races to loose pucks as they did earlier in the Playoffs.

"No team in the League confronts the puck as well as the Rangers," Quinn said. "It's a trait Mike Keenan established in Chicago and took to New York. They challenge you, force you to make errors.

"Against a challenge defensive team, you have to move the puck quickly. You can't be getting into swirls and twirls. But that's where their experience beats you. There is tremendous willpower on that team. They can smell it. We have to use cliches because we haven't been through it before.

"I know it isn't supposed to happen that way, but you are going up against Mark Messier and all of those ex-Edmonton players. I'm sure it's just like lining up against Jack Nicklaus head to head going down the stretch. Sometimes you're more worried about Jack Nicklaus than about shooting your own score."

"The dream isn't complete until I see the shiny thing," MacTavish said.

Brian Leetch won the Conn Smythe Trophy in '94 as the Playoff MVP, becoming the fifth defenseman to be named MVP and first since Al MacInnis in 1989.

The Cup is 37 inches tall, 18 inches wide and it weighs 35 1/2 pounds. But it is as light as a feather when the weight of the world has been taken off your shoulders.

"The most amazing thing about it is seeing all the names and teams," Beukeboom said. "You look throughout the years for a few teams or Finals you remember, or coaches or people you've been associated with.

"And when you're lucky enough to have been on three champions as I was in Edmonton, you look for your name."

Opportunities to celebrate this ultimate triumph don't come along every year. Just ask future Hall of Famer Ray Bourque, who finally won the Stanley Cup in his 21st and last season in 2001.

Since 1994, the Rangers have been an afterthought in the Playoffs. They have brought in stars like Wayne Gretzky, Pavel Bure, Eric Lindros, etc. and have never been able to recapture that feeling they had in that dramatic, improbable run in '94.

Destiny's darlings? The best team money could buy?

No, a team with the determination and single-minded passion, plus Messier, Leetch, Richter and Keenan guaranteeing that no one -- no one -- was going to beat the Rangers.

All of the ingredients: coaching, depth up the middle, at least two prominent lines, great transition from the defense and leadership that can shoulder the mentally tough part of the job it takes to win a Stanley Cup.

It's the Stanley Cup Final I will never forget -- a celebration for all ages.

Larry Wigge has covered the NHL since 1969 and had a lot of clothes cleaned after being sprayed with champagne.