The first month of the season is over for the New York Rangers and all they can say about October is good riddance. They played the fewest games of any team in the NHL and in November they face a month with one of their toughest schedules of the season.
The New York Rangers finished October with a record of 4-5-1 and were lucky to escape with that considering a bizarre schedule that contained the longest home stand of the season and a couple of ridiculously long extended breaks. For the first two weeks of the season they were unable to get into any kind of rhythm and when the schedule finally kicked in they lost five games in a row.
November is jam-packed with 15 games in 30 days. They play seven games at home and eight on the road. They have three sets of back-to-back games, with two of them all on the road. The competition is rough. They have seven games with teams that made the playoffs last season, however nine of the games are against teams currently in a playoff spot. The Athletic website (subscription required) ranked the Rangers’ schedule for November as the third toughest in the NHL.
They certainly got off to a good start with their road win in Nashville. The rest of November, the Blueshirts play only one Western Conference team with five games against Metropolitan Division rivals and eight games against teams from the Atlantic Division.
The toughest road games will be this Thursday in Carolina and games later in the month in Tampa and Boston. Ranger fans should look forward to visits from Sidney Crosby and the Penguins and Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals in November.
The biggest challenge of the month looks to be a 1pm start in Boston on November 29, the day after Thanksgiving. It will be televised nationally as part of the NHL Thanksgiving Showdown. Last season the Rangers were embarrassed on national television 4-0 by the Philadelphia Flyers. The Bruins are off to a very hot start and the Rangers will be looking to get revenge for their loss in October at MSG.
Riding a two game winning streak, the Rangers have a chance to build on their success with two straight home games this week against the worst teams in the Atlantic Division, Ottawa and Detroit.
November has been a good month for the Blueshirts. Since the 2005-06 lockout, the Rangers have a 111-57-11 record in the month. Over the last four years they have lost only 15 out of 54 games in November in regulation.
Last season the Rangers were a playoff contender until Thanksgiving. This season, the Rangers have already faced some challenges and hope to be on the rise when the holiday rolls around.