December 16, 2020: This day in New York Rangers history

A first time coaching matchup this date for the New York Rangers

What happened on December 16 in the history of the New York Rangers

On this date in 1934 something happened at Madison Square Garden that had never happened before in NHL history.  Two brothers were opposing coaches for the first time.  Lester Patrick was running the bench for the New York Rangers and his brother Frank was the coach of the Boston Bruins.  Lester’s Rangers beat Frank’s Bruins 2-1.

The brothers would meet five more times in the 1934-35 season with the Rangers going 1-3-2.  The next season they would play eight times with Lester prevailing 6-2.  So, in the two season that Frank Patrick coached the Bruins and met his brother, the Rangers and Lester finished with a 7-5-2 record.

Lester Patrick played on one game in the NHL and one in the playoffs and was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1947 after 13 years as Rangers coach.  Frank Patrick was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a builder in 1950,  becoming the first set of brothers to make it into the Hall of Fame.

Two other pairs of brothers have coached against each other in the NHL  Bryan Murray (Detroit)  and Terry Murray (Washington) faced each other in the 1990-91 season.

In the 2011-12 season, Darryl Sutter (Los Angeles) faced his brother Brent Sutter (Calgary).

The Patricks are known as hockey royalty and Lynn, Muzz and Craig Patrick all became head coaches of the the Rangers.

Opposing players milestones

On this date in 1950 two hockey immortals, Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion made their debuts against the New York Rangers.  They both played in a 1-1 tie at the Montreal Forum.
1950 with Geoffrion scoring the only goal for the Habs.

In 1964 Gordie Howe of the Red Wings  became the first player in NHL history to reach the 1,300 point mark in a 7-3 win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Howe had two goal and two assists to reach the milestone.   It was also the 1,000th win for the Detroit Red Wings franchise.

Do you know the way from San Jose?

In 1991 on December 16, the Rangers played the  San Jose Sharks for the first time ever as the Sharks found their way to Madison Square Garden for the first time. The expansion team lost 15 of their first 16 games and came to New York with a record of 7-22-4 and they escaped with a point, losing in overtime 4-3.

The Rangers won the next meeting in San Jose and the Sharks finished last in the Smythe Division, winning on 17 out of 80 games.  The Sharks have only played 20 games at MSG  since 1991 with a 5-12-3 record.

The numbers

December 16 is not a good day for the Rangers as they have only 11 regulation wins in 39 games.  They have won in overtime four times and once in a shootout.

Games: 39
Regulation wins: 11
Regulation losses: 19
Ties: 3
Overtime wins: 4
Shootout wins: 1
Overtime losses: 1
Points percentage

Looking back

On each day, we look back at what the Rangers did one, five and ten years ago. They didn’t play last year, but five and ten years ago they had big wins against solid competition.

Last year – 2019: Nashville 5, Rangers 2

A year ago, the Rangers were thoroughly spanked by the Predators, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.  Four of the five Nashville goals were scored by the defense while Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin scored for the Rangers who had 41 shots on goal.  Mika Zibanejad assisted on both Ranger goals.   For Panarin, he tied a career high by scoring in five straight games.

5 years ago – 2015: No game

10 years ago – 2010:  Rangers 4, Phoenix 3 (Shootout)

The Rangers were down 3-1 with one minute left in the second period, but a late shorthanded goal by Brandon Prust spurred the team to a comeback and Derek Stepan scored the tying goal 15 minutes into the final stanza. Prust’s shorthanded tally came with Brandon Dubinsky in the penalty box.  Dubinsky had taken a tripping penalty with the Rangers on the power play and looked to be the goat until he was bailed out by Prust. It was Prust’s third shorthanded goal in 11 games spanning three weeks.

Dan Girardi had scored a power play goal in the first period for the Blueshirts’ first score.  Erik Christensen scored the only goal of the shootout as Martin Biron stopped all three Phoenix attempts for the win. It was one of five successful shootout attempts for Christensen that season as he went five for eight.