On December 29 in NYR history: Remember the Scouts?

The Kansas City Scouts played the New York Rangers for the first time at Madison Square Garden

When it comes to obscure teams of recent memory, the Kansas City Scouts have to qualify.  Most hockey fans don’t even remember that for two seasons the NHL had a team in Kansas City.   It was on this date in 1974 that the Scouts made their first appearance at Madison Square Garden. It was the first of five appearances in New York in the Scouts’ history.

The Scouts were born the same year as the Washington Capitals and like the Caps, finished last in their division.  They came to New York with only one win in their last 14 games and they almost pulled off an upset.  The Rangers squeaked out a 2-1 win.

The Scouts captain, Simon Nolet, scored midway through the first period and the Scouts hung on to that lead until 15 minutes into the second period when Pete Stemkowski finally got the Rangers on the scoreboard.   The Rangers were the only team to score in the third period when Bill Fairbairn scored off a feed from Brad Park.

Curt Ridley was in goal for the Rangers, stopping 25 of 26 shots.  Ex-Ranger Peter McDuffe was in net for Kansas City, eager to beat his former teammates.  McDuffe had been claimed from the Rangers in the expansion draft.

The Scouts played the Rangers five times that season, losing four times by a combined score of 21-6, getting one 2-2 tie in Kansas City.  In their second and last season in the Kansas City, the Scouts were able to beat the Blueshirts once, at Madison Square Garden, against four losses.

The Scouts relocated after the 1975-76 season to Colorado as the Rockies and then moved to New Jersey in 1982.  They’ve been the New Jersey Devils ever since.

It’s a great trivia question.  What was the original team that became the New Jersey Devils?   Not many will know the answer.

Today’s birthdays

Not a single New York Rangers has been born on December 29.

The numbers

The Rangers have played 43 times on December 29 and are barely above .500.

Games: 43
Regulation wins: 19
Regulation losses: 18
Ties: 3
Overtime wins: 1
Overtime losses:  1
Shootout losses: 1
Points percentage:  .523

Looking back

Every day we look at games the Rangers have played last season and on this date five and ten years ago.  Two of the day the team was idle, but ten years ago there was a classic Lundqvist-Brodeur duel.

Last year, 2019:  No game

5 years ago, 2015: No game

10 years ago, 2010: Rangers 3, New Jersey 1

It was big road win on this date in 2010 as the Rangers beat the Devils 3-1 despite being outshot 44-26.  A Travis Zajac goal put the Devils up 1-0 in the first period,but Brian Boyle scored the equalizer less than a minute later.  Michal Rozsival scored a second period goal with a third period marker added by Brandon Dubinsky.

The Devils were on the downturn, destined to miss the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.  They came back to eliminate the Rangers the next season in the Eastern Conference Final, but lost the Cup to the Kings.

Henrik Lundqvist out dueled Martin Brodeur for the win.  The Lundqvist-Brodeur rivalry was one of the better among  Metropolitan area teams.  This was the 32nd time the two goalies faced each other and Lundqvist was by far the better of the two with a 23-6-3 record (including playoffs).