How tough is the Rangers’ 2021 schedule?

A deeper look into the New York Rangers schedule

The NHL went the boring route in naming the four divisions for the 2021 NHL season.  The all-Canada division is the North Division.  Appropriately, there is a Central and West Division and the New York Rangers are in the East Division.  Yawn.

Try telling someone who lives in Miami or Raleigh that they are the Central United States. Not really.  Previous, we had advocated going retro with the Division names and reviving the Patrick, Smythe, Norris and Adams names.  Oh well.

Now that the East Division scheduled has been revealed, it’s worth looking at what is facing the New York Rangers.  First some factoids about the new grouping:

• The East Division is home to teams that have won five of the last seven Presidents’ Trophies.  The Rangers won in 2014-15, the Bruins won twice (2019-20, 2013-14), as well as the Capitals (2016-17, 2015-16).
• The Rangers and Islanders are in the same division for a 48th consecutive season since the  Fish Sticks were born in 1972.
• The Rangers are in the same division with the Devils, Flyers and Islanders for the 38th consecutive season since 1982-83.
• The Rangers and Bruins will be in the same division for the first time since the 1973-74 season. They’ve been in the same division 20 times in the history of their franchises.
• It’s been almost 50 years since the Rangers, Islanders and Sabres were in the same division.  The Sabres have been aligned with the Rangers four years (1970-74).
• Boston and Buffalo will be intradivisional opponents for a 50th consecutive season dating to 1970-71, the longest such active streak in the NHL.
• It’s the first time since the 2012-13 season that the Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets won’t be in the same division as the Rangers.
• This will be the 46th year that the Rangers won’t be in the same division as a team from Canada.  The last time was 1973-74 when the East Division included the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks. Yes, you heard that right…the Vancouver Canucks were in the East Division. Atlanta was in the West. Don’t ask.

Back-to-backs

The NHL schedule makers were very kind to the New York Ranger, scheduling only six back-to-back games, the fewest for any team in the NHL.  Here’s the full list with the East Division teams in bold:

6 back-to-back:  Rangers, Pittsburgh, Tampa
7 back-to-back:  Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Florida, New Jersey, Colorado, Vancouver
8 back-to-back:  Boston, Buffalo, Columbus, Detroit, Islanders, Philadelphia, Vegas, Washington
9 back-to-back:  Arizona, Anaheim, Minnesota, Winnipeg
10 back-to-back: Calgary, Los Angeles, Montreal, Nashville, St. Louis,  Toronto, Calgary,
11 back-to-back: Edmonton, Ottawa
12 back-to-back: San Jose

For many teams as few back-to-backs will be very important, but for the Rangers, maybe not.  Last season they played 12 back-to-back sets and they won the second game seven times, going 7-4-1.   They actually swept both games six times, lost both games only once and had five splits.   With the strength of the Rangers’ goaltending, playing games on consecutive nights might be seen as a strength for them.

They don’t play their first back-to-back until February 20-21 against Washington (both road games).  They have two sets in March. The first is March 4-5 in a home and away against the Devils. The second in March is March 27-28 versus Philadelphia and Washington (road games).

April 8-9 they play Pittsburgh and the Islanders on consecutive nights (home and away) and again on April 17-18 for their second home and away against the Devils.

The final back-to-back is May 5-6 against Washington and Boston (home and away).

Baseball-type series

As expected, teams will be playing series of two games often.  The Rangers have two games series 22 times.  They will face Boston and Pittsburgh consecutively four times each.  They will see the Islanders, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Washington three times in consecutive games.

The weird one is the schedule with the Devils.  They have one set of consecutive games and then play the Devils four times in a row from April13-18. Yup,they will play the Devils four times in six days.  Note that those are the first four games after the trade deadline.

The schedule is pretty evenly spread with eight games in January, 13 in February, 15 in March and April and five games in May.  In terms of days off, they will have consecutive days off twice in January, February, March, and April and none in May.  They actually have three consecutive days off once, on February 13-15.

Knowing the experiences of the leagues in Russia, Finland and Sweden, it is likely that there will games postponed and there are not a lot of days available to make them up.

Tough stretches

The competition in this division is so tough, it’s impossible to define one stretch of games as tougher than the rest.  If any month can be called “soft” it is April as they play the Devils and Sabres eight times in 15 games.  After that, their season ends with two game series against the Islanders, Washington and Boston.    Like we said, tough.

Getting off to a good start

The Rangers schedule favors a fast start.  In their first ten games, they play seven games against teams (Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Buffalo) that didn’t make the Stanley Cup Playoffs  (Pittsburgh did make the Qualifier, but not the SC Playoffs).   It’s vital for the Blueshirts to do well in a stretch like that as the rest of the season teams will be beating each others’ brains out.

As we’ve noted before, the Rangers had a solid record against good teams in the Metropolitan Division last season.  If they can keep it up, who knows?

The full schedule

Here is the full schedule:

JANUARY
Thu.       1/14/2021       N.Y. Islanders
Sat.        1/16/2021       N.Y. Islanders
Tue.       1/19/2021        New Jersey
Fri.         1/22/2021       At  Pittsburgh
Sun.       1/24/2021       At  Pittsburgh
Tue.       1/26/2021        At   Buffalo
Thu.       1/28/2021        At   Buffalo
Sat.        1/30/2021        Pittsburgh

FEBRUARY    
Mon.     2/1/2021             Pittsburgh
Thu.       2/4/2021            Washington
Sat.        2/6/2021            At New Jersey
Mon.     2/8/2021             Islanders
Wed.     2/10/2021          Boston
Fri.         2/12/2021          Boston
Tue.       2/16/2021          Philadelphia
Thu.       2/18/2021          At Philadelphia
Sat.        2/20/2021          At Washington
Sun.       2/21/2021          At Washington
Wed.     2/24/2021           At Philadelphia
Fri.         2/26/2021           Boston
Sun.       2/28/2021           Boston

MARCH    

Tue.       3/2/2021             Buffalo
Thu.       3/4/2021             New Jersey
Fri.         3/5/2021             At New Jersey
Sun.       3/7/2021            At Pittsburgh
Tue.       3/9/2021             At Pittsburgh
Thu.       3/11/2021          At Boston
Sat.        3/13/2021          At Boston
Mon.     3/15/2021           Philadelphia
Wed.     3/17/2021           Philadelphia
Fri.         3/19/2021            At Washington
Mon.     3/22/2021            Buffalo
Thu.       3/25/2021           At Philadelphia
Sat.        3/27/2021           At Philadelphia
Sun.       3/28/2021           At Washington
Tue.       3/30/2021            Washington

APRIL         

Thu.       4/1/2021            At Buffalo
Sat.        4/3/2021            At Buffalo|
Tue.       4/6/2021             Pittsburgh
Thu.       4/8/2021             Pittsburgh
Fri.         4/9/2021             At N.Y. Islanders
Sun.       4/11/2021          At N.Y. Islanders
Tue.       4/13/2021           At New Jersey
Thu.       4/15/2021           New Jersey
Sat.        4/17/2021           New Jersey
Sun.       4/18/2021           At New Jersey
Tue.       4/20/2021            At N.Y. Islanders
Fri.         4/23/2021            Philadelphia
Sun.       4/25/2021            Buffalo
Tue.       4/27/2021            Buffalo
Thu.       4/29/2021            N.Y. Islanders

MAY    

Sat.        5/1/2021             At N.Y. Islanders
Mon.     5/3/2021             Washington
Wed.     5/5/2021             Washington
Thu.       5/6/2021             At Boston
Sat.        5/8/2021             At Boston