It’s only been a day since we found out that the Rangers would open their season in Boston on Tuesday September 29th, and then their home opener against the Tampa Bay Lighting just two days later. Perhaps they – meaning the NHL – could have spread the news out a little longer to give us something to talk about in these hot weeks in between the heady days of July 1st and training camp in September.

Well anyway, that’s not to be, and we now have the full schedule. Did I mention it’s 84 games this year? First time since THAT year in 1993-94, when the Rangers went all the way to the Stanley Cup. Very hard to see that repeating this year, but hey…hopefully they’ll be a little better this time around.

So what do we have to look forward to exactly? Well there’s a Winter Classic on New Years eve between the Mammoth and Colorado if that’s your thing. There’s also an “All-Star” game in early February on Long Island…again, if that’s your thing. Stadium series in February that doesn’t involve the Rangers, so yeah that’s all I’ll spend on that topic.

What about fun things like the Trade Deadline date, or even where and when the 2027 NHL Entry Draft is going to be held? Well neither of those dates – or for that matter the location on the latter, though it’s said that Philadelphia is in talks to “host” the shell that is left of it.

HEY I KNOW THAT GUY, HE’S A FRIEND FROM WORK!

Well first off, let’s have a look at those reunion dates:

1. October 1st v TBL – Oliver Bjorkstrand faces the team he spent – checks notes – 1 year with
2. October 4th v UTA – Vincent Trocheck’s – remember him – is back from the Wild West. There’ll be a tribute, because he’s one of the guys that Chris Drury liked. Sean Durzi should also get that pressure of facing his old team off his back quickly too.
3. October 11th v VAN – Marcus Pettersson doesn’t have long to wait either, but maybe he’d just rather forget his time in the Pacific Northwest
4. October 19th v ANA – Sure, Chris Kreider was back last season – December 15th if you forgot, but he’s back again and still looking odd in Orange. No Jacob Trouba this time though, and I wonder if Vatrano will be traded. We also get to see the – at the moment – highest paid player in the NHL
5. October 26th v LAK – Same for Artemi Panarin, after all he came back to MSG on March 16th. He’ll be back this time with a new deal in hand
6. November 16th v MTL – Probably unlikely that Brett Berard will be in the line-up, and even less likely that William Trudeau will be, so this will likely be a dud – at least for reunions. Oh yeah, I guess there’s Joe Veleno facing up against his old team
7. December 3rd v SJS – Seeing Trouba in yet another uniform with another bloated contract. What could be more amusing?
8. January 16th v BOS – We have to wait how long to see Will Borgen back at MSG?
9. February 15th v BUF – The prodigal Son-In-Law – aka Conor Sheary, and Sam Kraken himself both return for their first visit to MSG
10. February 26th v WSH – J-Bro will be back in the building. Mr. utility/bottom six fill-in guy has a new home. He may not make it into the line-up, but he might
11. March 7th v VGK – Pavel Dorofeyev will either be really popular by the time his old team visits, or will be cursed by the Blueshirt faithful for being another bad Drury move.
12. March 16th v OTT – Not so much a reunion as a visit from Ottawa without that guy Brady Tkachuk who apparently had no interest in coming to NY despite all that pesky “meddling”. Will Ottawa just be really boring now? At any rate we would have already seen him on January 27th when FLA visits

MONTHLY VISITORS

Seven road and seven home games to start the year, and then six and seven respectively in November. That’s pretty even right, although we have that 4 game Western Conference swing through the Pac Northwest and the Canadian Prairie. November transitions into December with 5 straight home games which is the longest of the season. December closes out on New Years Eve with yet another evenly balanced schedule of seven and seven.

January is pretty busy, 15 games in all – 8 on the road. February by contrast is typically quiet. No Olympics this year – sorry Kash, but there is an All Star game or something on the Island, so only 10 games – just four at home. Back to 14 in March – seven and seven again, before they close out in April with just four games scheduled, including a three game stretch at MSG to close out the regular season.

METRO TEXTUAL

December and February are the heaviest on games against the Metropolitan Division rivals, with seven in each of those. In fact there’s only three games against Metro opponents after February 28th. If the Rangers really hope to make the playoffs again this year, they are going to mostly have to beat those teams, and they’re not going to have as much opportunity to catch up. Interestingly, three of the last four Metropolitan Division match-ups are against the Pittsburgh Penguins. That should be fun.

First and last matchup of the year against the Metro

1. NYI – Oct 5th and Feb 18th
2. WSH – Oct 6th and Mar 21st
3. NJD – Oct 9th and Dec 22nd
4. CBJ – Nov 10th and Jan 5th
5. PHI – Nov 17th and Feb 20th
6. CAR – Nov 23rd and Feb 21st
7. PIT – Jan 29th and Apr 6th

RANDOM CRAP

My math is probably off – and I didn’t double check, but it looks like 11 back-to-backs. Longest break of the season is from February 3rd-12th, which unsurprisingly is around the All Star weekend. There’s also a five day break between October 26th and November 1st – so no Halloween game this year. And another five day one around Christmas. Overall it’s a bit more balanced than last year, what with the early start to the season and no lengthy break for the Olympics.

Anyway, those are some things to think about…for the next several weeks while we wait for the season to kick off. It’s only 75 days until opening night.