The New York Rangers will be getting a national spotlight on NBC
New Year’s Day has been the day that hockey fans get to watch the annual Winter Classic. This will be the first time in 14 years that the game will not be played. To make up for it, NBC released its national television schedule for the 2021 season. The New York Rangers are making seven appearances, tied for the most of any team in the NHL. The national television audience will have to be patient as they have to wait until February 10 for their first glimpse at Alexis Lafrenière.
The 44 game schedule is heavily weighted in favor of team from the new East Division with the Rangers, Bruins, Flyers, Penguins and Capitals each making seven appearances. There are 20 games on the schedule featuring East Division teams.
New Yorke area hockey fans won’t see seven teams at all this season as they aren’t on the schedule. That include Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Ottawa from the North, San Jose and Anaheim from the West and the Devils from the East.
In fact, there are only two games on the schedule for teams from the Canadian division featuring Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto twice.
There are 12 games on the schedule for teams from the Central and 10 games featuring West Division teams.
The Rangers schedule
Here’s the full national television schedule for the Rangers:
- Wednesday, February 10 – Boston @ Rangers (NBCSN)
- Wednesday, February 24 – Rangers @ Philadelphia (NBCSN)
- Sunday, February 28 – Boston @ Rangers (NBC)
- Sunday, March 7 – Rangers @ Pittsburgh (NBCSN)
- Wednesday, March 17 – Philadelphia @ Rangers (NBCSN)
- Sunday, March 28 – Rangers @ Washington (NBC)
- Wednesday, May 5 – Washington @ Rangers (NBCSN)
How well do the Rangers do on a national stage? They’ve consistently won more games than they have lost with only 2018-19 the outlier over the last six years.
- 2014-15: 9-3-1
- 2015-16 : 8-3-2
- 2016-17: 10-6-0
- 2017-18: 7-6-1
- 2018-19: 4-7-3
- 2019-20: 6-5-1
Weirdness
Besides the fact that seven teams never make the national television cut there are some other strange things about the NBC schedule.
- How they can schedule 20 East Division games and leave out the Devils is a bit weird.
- Chicago makes seven appearances (tied for the most). It’s obvious the schedule makers did this before Jonathan Toews announced he cannot play due to an undisclosed injury and before Kirby Dach had to undergo surgery on his wrist.
- Detroit, the team that had the worst record in hockey by far, makes six appearances, second most of all teams.
- Of the seven teams that didn’t make the postseason last year, four don’t have any national games. Minnesota plays twice, the Kings three times and the aforementioned Red Wings have those six games.
- Staying on our Detroit theme, they actually have two head-to-head matchups with the Chicago Blackhawks. Those could be “must avoid” games.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning, Stanley Cup Champions, appear four times. They are featured on opening night, then don’t have another game until April 4.
- The team that lost the Stanley Cup Final, the Dallas Stars, make all of one appearance on national television.
- The Islanders are clearly not a big draw. Despite going to the Eastern Conference Finals, they play only twice on national TV.
- One of the biggest free agent signings this off-season was Alex Pietrangelo with the Vegas Golden Knights. That would make a Vegas-St. Louis meeting a must watch game, right? Nope, there is no nationally televised game between the two teams despite the facct that the Blues are in the same division.
- Big cities win out as the top five Nielsen markets (NY, LA, Chi, Phil, Dallas) have 27 of the 44 games.
Note. There is one game on the schedule that is still to be determined. On May 8, if the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks are in a life and death struggle for a playoff spot, we could get to see Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns once this season. Doubt it.
There will be changes
NBC emphasizes that this schedule is subject to change and if the NHL and MLB are any indication, there will be numerous COVID-related postponements.
NBC points out that some games will be blacked out in local markets and televised locally so you will have to check listings to see if a Rangers national television home game will be on NBC or the MSG Network.
You can find the full NBC schedule here.
Games worth noting
There are some games you may want to put on your calendars.
- Opening night on January 13 will feature a triple header with the Penguins at the Flyers at 5:30pm EST, followed by the Blackhawks at Tampa Bay at 8pm EST and St. Louis at Colorado at 10:30pm EST.
- The Ovechkin-Crosby rivalry restarts on January 27 with Washington in Pittsburgh. They play each other again on February 14, appropriately Valentine’s Day.
- Your only chance to see Connor McDavid will be on January 20 when the Oilers visit Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs.
- Zdeno Chara takes on his old teammates on March 3 when the Capitals visit Boston.
- Your only chance to see Jesper Fast and Brady Skjei in action will be on April 4 when they entertain the Dallas Stars.
- If you like to watch John Tortorella, the Blue Jackets have one game on April 25 in Tampa.
Drawing up a schedule is no easy task and television ratings potential plays a big part in which team are featured. If you want to see more than the 24 teams featured on national telecasts, there’s always NHL Center Ice.
Finally, one thing will be missing from the NBC telecasts this season and that will be Doc Emrick who decided to hang it up after 47 years of calling hockey games. We’ll miss his inimitable style.