Game times for the Blueshirts in the qualifying round

A tentative schedule has been released for the first half of the qualifying round so we know when the New York Rangers will play

Get ready to mark your calendars New York Rangers fans!  The tentative schedule for the first five days has been released so we now know when they will be playing their first three games.   Make plans to stay home and take two weekdays off.

Tentative game schedule and times for the first 5 days of the NHL’s return to play and Stanley Cup Qualifiers – no TV listings have been released yet. (📸 – @NoVa_Caps via NHL API) pic.twitter.com/trAjNjN27q

Game 1 – Saturday, August 1, Noon

The New York Rangers will kick off the best-of-five qualifying tournament, playing the Carolina Hurricanes at noon EST at Scotiabank Arena.    They are designated the road team in the first match of the postseason.

Game 2 – Monday, August 3, Noon

Believe it or not, the Rangers play their first two games at the noon hour.   The Rangers are again designated the road team.

Game 3 – Tuesday, August 4,  4pm

The Blueshirts finally get out of the noon hour to play as the home team in game three at 4pm.  This is the one time the team will play on back-to-back days.

Games 4 and 5 (if they don’t sweep)

Game 4 will be on Thursday, August 6 and Game 5 will be on Saturday, August 8.  The schedule won’t be made public until close to those dates as numerous teams could be eliminated by that time.

Worth noting

• The NHL must have something against New York teams as both the Rangers and Islanders are playing at noon in two out of their three games. The third game is at 4pm for both teams.
• Is there favoritism towards the Canadian teams?  So far, all of the Canadiens and Maple Leafs games are in prime time at 8pm EST.
• No television schedule has been announced.  Expect the Rangers first game to be on NBC with the other two probably on NBCSN.   There is no confirmation of that yet.
• The Rangers have not been stellar in day games.  In 2018-19 they went 3-3-5 in 11 daytime games.  This season, their record was 4-4-3.
• Hockey fans can overdose on the game with the ability to watch five or six games every day.  Every day except Sunday, hockey fans on the East Coast can watch from noon to 1am.
• All qualifier games will be played with playoff overtime rules so they could go very long.   Round Robin games will be played with regular season OT rules.
• The NHL has decided that all records from the qualifier round will count as playoff records, not regular season.
• One big caveat.  This schedule including all game times is subject to change.