ANAHEIM, Calif. — This was when Bobby Holik was a Ranger, three years after he and the Devils had blown their shot at repeating as Stanley Cup champions in 2001 by losing Game 6 of the finals at home to the Avalanche before ultimately going down in Game 7 in Denver.
The Blueshirts were at their morning skate in Colorado. Holik was busy preparing his sticks for that night's match when he was asked if he ever experienced flashbacks to 2001 when at the Avalanche's rink.
"Every time the plane starts to descend," Holik said. "Every time I come here."
Now these Rangers can understand of what Holik spoke. For here they are in Southern California for the first time since losing the 2014 Cup final to the Kings in such an excruciating double-overtime Game 5 manner that left the team devastated in its immediate aftermath.
The team landed at John Wayne Airport in Orange County and not LAX, and the Ducks were first up on the pond Wednesday night, and the Rangers passed that test with flying colors in a 4-1 win. But on Thursday, the Rangers return to the scene of the crime to face the defending Stanley Cup champions.
"I've thought about it since we've been here, yep," Henrik Lundqvist said. "Of course I have."
The image of Lundqvist's dejection in the postgame room — the post-series room — serves as the enduring memory of 2014, the goaltender frozen in despair, slumped in his stall, hands over his face, pads and skates still on more than a half-hour after the game had ended.
"You move on, but there are reminders. But you know, thinking about it doesn't only bring back painful memories," The King said. "There was so much good, it was such a great ride, and it was hard to walk away.
"Coming back against Pittsburgh, those Game Sevens, winning the conference final against Montreal at home in front of our fans, and even getting to play home games in the final," he said. "Those were great experiences for me and for our team.
"The end didn't just erase all of that."
If coach Alain Vigneault has said it once, he has said it a thousand times. This is a different year and this is a different team. But the nucleus remains very much the same, and for both the conquerors and the vanquished. Indeed, 21 of the current Kings had their names engraved on the Cup while 15 of the current Blueshirts experienced the agony of defeat.
"Oh, I had some flashbacks when we landed and I'm pretty sure everyone here did," said Derick Brassard. "There are some good memories and some bad memories about what happened. You kind of wish you could change it, but you can't.
"And you don't want to change everything. Only the outcome of the last series. We were playing hockey at a time that every single player in the league wants to be playing, and it was just so much fun to get the chance at competing for the Stanley Cup.
"It's kind of funny, but when I look back, it hurts more now," Brassard said. "When it ended, and then over the summer, I needed to get away from hockey and thinking about hockey, so I didn't really think too much about it.
"But during the season, you see highlights on TV, or someone mentions it, and you kind of think, 'Oh my God, we came so close,' and then you remember how much it hurt to lose. So coming back to that rink is going to bring memories, I know that."
Derek Stepan, however, does not quite know that.
"To be honest, I haven't thought about it," Stepan said. "I have no idea how I'm going to feel walking back into that locker room.
"Ask me after the game."
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