On March 19 in NYR history: A mark for Jaromir Jagr

What happened on March 19 in the history of the New York Rangers

On this date in 2007, Jaromir Jagr became the first NHL player to score 25 or more goals in each of his first 16 seasons.  It’s a record never achieved by Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Brett Hull or any of the great goal scorers in NHL history and Jagr accomplished it as a Ranger.

The goal came in a 2-1 win over his former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, as Jagr scored the tiebreaker with just 33.8 seconds left in the game. He would go on to score five more times to finish with 30 goals.  The only time he failed to hit the 30 goal mark in his first 16 seasons was his rookie year when he scored 27.

Jagr would play one more year in New York and add to his record, scoring exactly 25 goals in 2007-08 at age 38, ending the streak at 17 years. Unbelievably, Jagr would score 27 goals for Florida at age 43.

In case you were curious, Alexander Ovechkin has scored over 30 goals in his first 15 seasons but is on a pace to fall short of 25 this season. He has scored 12 goals this season in the Capitals first 29 games.  Jagr’s record may be preserved by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two assists in a game for Ed-die

On this date in 1972, Ed Giacomin became the first NHL goalie to register two assists in one game. He had the two assists in a 5-3 win over Toronto at Madison Square Garden. He assisted on a second period goal by Bill Fairbairn and got the record on a third period goal by Pete Stemkowski.

It gave Giacomin three assists on the season, tying Bernie Parent’s NHL record set in 1969-70.   Eddie Johnston of Boston and Al Smith of Detroit finished the 1971-72 season with four assists to break Parent’s record.

Since Giacomin did it, 35 other NHL goalies have had two assists in a game including Jeff Reese of the Calgary Flames who broke the record by notching three assists in a game in 1993.

This was the only time that Giacomin accomplished the feat.  John Vanbiesbrouck did it in 1985 and Mike Richter had two games with two assists.

Lots of goals in a tie

In 1978 on March 19, the Rangers played a 7-7 tie with the Minnesota North Stars.  It happened in Minneapolis and it was the most goals every scored by the Rangers in a tie game.  In the same game, Phil Esposito got his 1,400 NHL point, the second player in league history to hit that mark.

The Rangers had taken a 7-6 lead on a Ron Greschner goal with only 1:19 left in the third period, but the North Stars got the tie with the goalie pulled and 46 seconds left when Brad Maxwell scored.

Another Canadiens record at the Rangers’ expense

With a six team league and a powerhouse Montreal Canadiens team, it often seemed like the Habs set some sort of record every time they played the Blueshirts.  On this date in 1944, the Canadiens beat New York 6-1 at Madison Square Garden in the final game of the season.

With the win, the Canadiens finished 25 points ahead of second place Detroit, the widest margin between the top two teams in the league in NHL history.   The Habs came close to equaling that mark with a 24 point spread in 1956, but no one else has been in the ballpark.

Today’s birthdays

There have been 19 NHL players born on March 19 with four who have won the Rangers uniform.

Unfortunately, he never made it with the Rangers, playing 19 games over two seasons, but he did become a regular on the blue line for the Devils for over three seasons and he played 321 games in the NHL for six different teams. He is one of the few players who has played for all three metropolitan area teams.

The numbers

The Rangers have played 37 games on March 19 and are one game under .500, but have a plus points percentage due to six ties and a shootout win.

Games: 37
Regulation wins: 14
Regulation losses: 15
Ties: 6
Overtime losses: 1
Shootout wins: 1
Points percentage: .527