If you think that this year’s schedule is an exception to the rule that has applied to the Rangers for nearly six decades, you are correct.
Because other than the 2013-14 season in which the Garden was undergoing its extensive reconstruction; the 1994-95 and 2012-13 seasons in which lockouts delayed the start of the season until January; and the 2020-21 season in which the pandemic postponed the opener also until January, the Rangers’ two games at the Garden this October represents the fewest since 1966-67, when they played two at the old building on 49th and 50th between Eighth and Ninth.
The ’66-67 season (which ended with Red Berenson hitting the post) opened on Oct. 19. The year prior, when the season opened on Oct. 24, the Rangers played one home game in October. One out of three, in fact.
Teams across the NHL generally don’t like to put in home dates for October. It’s tougher to sell tickets for October games in numerous markets.
The Rangers haven’t faced that issue. So, for instance, in 2017-18, the Blueshirts played a staggering 10 games at home in October, nearly one quarter of the schedule.
It’s been common over the past couple of decades for the club to face an imbalance of home vs. road games early in the season that would need correction over the second half of the season.
In 2019-20, for instance, seven of the first 10 were at home. In 2017-18, 10 of 13.
That hasn’t exactly been ideal.
This season, seven of the nine October games are on the road. The team will get its western Canada trek out of the way by the end of the month. Also one of their two trips to Buffalo. There is virtue in going to Buffalo, western Canada and Winnipeg before the snow season.
Plus, the five-game, 12-day tour — which includes a visit to Seattle — will give the team time to bond. Bonding and constructing a family-type atmosphere is big on head coach Peter Laviolette’s list of priorities, right up there with the neutral zone lock.
On top of that, the Blueshirts will play 10 of their final 15 games on Broadway. They play only two games out of the eastern time zone — March 28 in Colorado, March 30 in Arizona — after Feb. 9.
It’s different, alright. Now it’s up to the Rangers to take advantage of it.
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Power $upply
The power play ranked seventh in the NHL last season at 24.1 percent after clocking in at fourth the previous season at 25.2 percent.
Those are surely representative numbers, but the Blueshirts will need more from this specialty unit, which colleague Mollie Walker covered this week.
Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin have been together on PP1 since the start of the 2019-20 season. Adam Fox replaced Tony DeAngelo on the right point a game into 2020-21. Vincent Trocheck took Ryan Strome’s spot — one No. 16 for another — to start last season.
I’m not big at all on fixating on salaries and cap hits versus performance. Once contracts are done, they are done.
But this first power play unit includes the club’s four highest-paid forwards and highest-paid defenseman.
It is a $41,767,857 Power Play.
It needs to be better than seventh. Yes, power plays can be notoriously streaky. This one sure has been. The Rangers are going to need more consistency and fewer valleys.
The talent on top — plus a second unit that likely will include the Kids who have been hungry for more responsibility — should have a higher ceiling than seventh.
Maybe the Rangers can’t be Edmonton (32.4 percent last season). But Toronto (26.0 percent) and Tampa Bay (25.4 percent) as second and third, respectively, should be within reach.
The regular-season stakes
I anticipate the Rangers will be a formidable team by the second half of the season. There are just too many high-end players on the roster to expect otherwise.
Once the club masters Laviolette’s neutral zone lock system, the defense and Igor Shesterkin should be the backbone of the team.
I think they are likely to place third in the division and to draw either the Devils or Carolina in the first round.
Finishing second presumably would set up the same hypothetical first-round matchup, only with the extra home game.
Didn’t seem to matter last season. Didn’t seem to matter against Tampa Bay or Carolina the year before.
There’s certainly something to the notion that all that matters is what the Rangers do in the playoffs.
But first they have to get there in an extremely competitive Eastern Conference in which Buffalo, Ottawa and Detroit are pushing up.
A wild-card spot is not bequeathed to the fourth-place team in the Metro. It would have to be earned.
So, yes, their regular season matters.
