The Rangers’ season opener is now less than a month away and it’s time for us to start focusing in on the games at hand. The 2007-08 season schedule is a little more unusual than what we’ve seen in recent years, with an increased focus on divisional play and a couple of anomalies that you don’t see every year.
Primarily among the unique components of this year’s schedule is a ten game run against Atlantic Division rivals in the final six weeks of the season. It promises to be an exicting (and perhaps stressful) end to the year.
October 4th v Florida Panthers
Of course we’re going to highlight opening night, why wouldn’t we? Rangers are 4-3-3-0 (that’s three ties for those who are counting) in their last ten season openers, but have won their last two against Philadelphia (5-3) and Washington (5-2).
Interestingly enough they’re 3-4-2-1 (that�s two ties) in home openers over the past ten seasons, but are 1-0-1-1 in their last three. The game against the Panthers will make the fifth time in the last seven years that the Rangers have opened the season against a team from the Southeast Division.
The game will also mark the home debut of Chris Drury and Scott Gomez in their new Rangers uniforms.
October 10th at New York Islanders
Last season the Islanders took the first four decisions between the two teams and caused the Rangers all sorts of problems in the first half of the year. It was the first time the Isles had won the season series since the 2001-02 season, with the Rangers reeling off a streak of 13-1-2-1 in the intervening period.
Several players will be introduced to the rivalry from both sides, with headliners Gomez and Drury on the Rangers side, and Bill Guerin and Mike Comrie getting their first experience from the Island.
October 12th v Washington Capitals
If somehow, the Rangers manage to win their first three games (vs. Panthers, at Senators, at Islanders), then they’ll have a shot at starting the season 4-0-0 for the first time since 1983-84 when they started 5-0-0, though they did go 1-0-4 in 1997-98, starting the year with four ties. I was tempted not to include this date, but it’s a streak that is now 22 seasons long.
October 18th at Atlanta Thrashers
The game marks the first time that the two teams will meet since the Rangers swept Atlanta out of last season’s playoffs. The Thrashers had no answer for the Rangers in the post-season, but have lost only one of the last six regular season meeting between the two clubs, albeit taking four of those games in extra innings. Ironically, the Rangers haven’t lost in regulation down in Atlanta since February of 2004, going 3-0-2 in the span since the game on leap-year day.
October 25th v New Jersey Devils
Scott Gomez will get his first chance at facing off against his former team mates in the regular season. Conversely, Karel Rachunek and Kevin Weekes (who figures to be a backup barring any unforeseen circumstances) will get to return to the garden for the first time since leaving as UFAs this summer. Neither Rachunek or Weekes were particularly loved by the garden faithful, so there might be a few derisive cheers and/or boos heard during the game.
November 6th at New York Islanders
The second meeting of the season between the Rangers and Islanders will be the first time that Chris Simon and Ryan Hollweg will have a chance to face-off against each other since Simon leveled Hollweg with a stick swing to the chin. The former Ranger winger earned a 25 game suspension for his efforts and has five more games remaining, meaning he’ll miss the first meeting between the two teams.
November 14th at New Jersey Devils
The Devils are moving to their new Newark arena this season, and November 14th will mark the first time that the Rangers will get to play there. It also will mark the return of Scott Gomez to New Jersey in his new uniform, and the locals are sure to give him a ‘rousing’welcome.
December 16th v Phoenix Coyotes
Don Maloney returns to MSG for his first game as a General Manager of the Coyotes against his former club. Maloney has his work cut out for him this season, and the game doesn’t hold much appeal outside of his return, with the Rangers facing the teams from the Pacific just once this season.
December 20th at Minnesota Wild
December 21st at Colorado Avalanche
January 2nd at Calgary Flames
January 3rd at Vancouver Canucks
January 5th at Edmonton Oilers
In the unbalanced schedule that the NHL currently plays under, the Rangers make their first of what will be a tri-annual trip to the Northwest Division teams. The last time the Rangers played in Minnesota and Colorado was back in the 2003-04 season, while you have to go back to November of 2002 for the last time they visited western Canada.
January 16th v Buffalo Sabres
The season will be 46 games in by the time the Rangers get to meet the team that eliminated them from the 2006-07 playoffs. Itï’ll be the first time that Chris Drury will get to face his old team, and the first time that the Rangers will have a shot at redemption.
January 22nd and 24th v Atlanta Thrashers
In one of those weird quirks of scheduling the Rangers will play the same team twice in a row on home ice. This hasn’t happened since the 1985-86 season when they hosted the Islanders in back to back home games.
February 7th v Anaheim Ducks
There was a 66.67% chance that the Rangers would get a chance to play against last year’s Stanley Cup champions if they came from the Western Conference. Just half that they’d get to play on home ice. As luck would have it, the Rangers will play their only meeting against the Stanley Cup Champion Ducks on February 7th.
February 23rd at Buffalo Sabres
If the Sabres fans didn’t already have a reason to hate the Rangers, add the loss of Chris Drury to the team in the off-season. Drury and the Rangers travel to Buffalo for the first time since the former Sabre center signed on with New York, and also it’ll be the first time the Rangers return to the scene of what was a pivotal OT loss in Game 5, when ironically enough Chris Durry scored the game-tying goal with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation.
March 18th through April 6th v Atlantic Division
The Rangers play their last ten games of the season against Atlantic Division rivals. In that stretch of ten games, they’ll face the Flyers and Islanders twice, and the Penguins and Devils each three times.
Oh did I mention that there’ll be three home and home sets in those last ten games?