A month ago, five teams from the New York area began their playoff journey and it brought back memories of 1994.

Not because some of these teams were all-time greats for their franchises like the Rangers and Knicks, who played deep into June 1994.

That was because five New York playoff teams hadn’t made the playoffs in the same season since 1994. Back then, the Rangers and maybe the Knicks were expected to go the distance and win the title, this year title expectations weren’t as high, though some were tied with the Rangers as possible Stanley Cup champions.

Almost a month later, the five-team extravaganza of each team that made the playoffs has officially ended. The end came in Miami, when the Knicks lost 96-92 in Game 6, ending a second-round series that brought back memories of the four times these teams played in the postseason when they combined for 24 physical games with low scoring in the last four seasons of Patrick Ewing’s tenure between 1997 and 2000.

While Miami has come a long way since those memorable battles with three championships and seven Eastern Conference appearances, Friday night ended a memorable 47-win season for the Knicks, who got their superstar in Jalen Brunson, whose 41 points nearly led them to To victory. Game 7.

Ultimately, the Knicks’ downfall came down to a Game 1 loss at home, along with the first two losses in Miami when the Heat played like they wanted it more, an observation noted by Julius Randle, who played through wrist pain and then opened the stretch . a circle of discourse about its future in some circles.

Ending the Knicks’ most successful season since 2012-13. it came roughly 24 hours after the Devils saw their pleasantly surprising season end with a Game 5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The loss ended a season where Jack Hughes became a superstar that resulted in the Devils using their speed to produce their first playoff run since 2018 while scoring often and playing differently than the three Stanley Cup-winning teams and the in 1994 that nearly stopped the Rangers from ending their 54-year drought.

Before getting tripped up by the Hurricanes, the Devils swept the Rangers in a strange seven-game home opener. It was the sixth time there was a “Battle of the Hudson,” but this was a series that produced no classic games and would not lead to books being published years later.

Instead, the Rangers looked like a surefire choice as a championship team when they opened the series with back-to-back 5-1 victories. Then Dougie Hamilton scored in overtime, the Devils won the next two to set up a classic series finish, except the Rangers extended it with a 5-2 victory before falling in a Game 7 setback.

The impact of dominance in Game 7 resulted in a change behind the bench. Rumors about the possibility of Gerard Gallant becoming the former coach began to surface shortly after the teams shook hands, and the possibility grew when he expressed disappointment in his response to questions on the subject on the day of the breakup. Around the same time, the Heat were in the second half and on their way to defeating the Knicks, Gallant was fired in a faceoff.

The unceremonious departure ended a season in which the Rangers were unable to live up to high expectations after a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals ended in Tampa Bay on June 10, preceded by a pair of seven-game winning streaks.

The Rangers met their end three days after the Islanders, who were swept to eventual champions in 1994 in four games. This time the Islanders weren’t undefeated, they just couldn’t get enough offense to work, creating a thin margin for error, as evidenced by three one-goal losses to the Hurricanes, who also outscored them in 2019.

The Islanders finished on April 28 with Paul Stastny’s goal six minutes into overtime. It was a bad-angle goal that came shortly after the Mets suffered a 4-0 loss to the Braves that was shortened to five innings due to heavy rains and an 88-minute delay.

The longtime rivals have endured more than the Nets, who four months ago looked like they might be in the Eastern Conference finals. Then they won 12 straight, 18 of 20 and 29 of their first 42 with some of their best stretches with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the roster.

A month later, the Nets were forced to make changes due to a trade request and reshuffled the roster by adding Mikal Bridges, Spencer Dinwiddie, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith in exchange for the superstar duo. The rebuild saw the Nets move up in the standings, but they got a date with the 76ers where the first-round series was a matter of winning a game or two against them.

By April 22, there was no response, as a lack of offense resulted in the Nets’ third opening round exit in four seasons.

It was the first of five elimination days for the spring playoffs that featured a combined 40 games. It wasn’t as memorable as the combined 76 games the five teams played over two months in 1994, but it was certainly eventful and did enough to clinch a region that last saw the New York Giants win a four-major title in the 2012 Super Bowl.