Rangers vs the newbies: An expansion history

The New York Rangers travel to Seattle, Washington to take on the Kraken, the newest addition to the National Hockey League.  It will mark the 27th time the Rangers will play a brand new team for the first time since the expansion era began in 1967.  How have the Blueshirts fared in those games?  It’s time to take a trip down useless trivia memory lane with more information than you probably need, but could find interesting.

All-time record

In a word, our heroes done pretty well.  The Rangers have an all-time record of 21-4-1 the first time that they have played an expansion team.  Now, that record makes a lot of sense considering how bad expansion teams have been.   After all, for years NHL owners made it impossible for expansion teams to be any good, allowing them to pick over the dregs of the league while doing everything to make sure that the existing teams remained intact.

How bad have they been?  The 1974-75 Washington Capitals will go down as the worst team of all time with a record of 8-67-5.  The Rangers had the pleasure of playing that team in their very first game, a 6-3 spanking at Madison Square Garden on October 9, 1974.  The Blueshirts should be embarrassed by their 6-6 tie in their next game with the Caps in Washington two months later.  That Washington team also holds the NHL records for most goals against (446) and fewest wins (8).

Some other expansion disasters include the 1972-73 Islanders (12-60-6), the 1974-75 Kansas City Scouts (15-54-11), the 1992-93 Ottawa Senators (10-70-4) and the 1991-92 San Jose Sharks (17-58-5).

The good news is the Rangers beat all of those teams the first times they met.  Of course, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction with the Vegas Golden Knights shocking the sports world by making it to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season.

An even better record

Consider this.  In the 26 games that they have played an expansion team, they have lost only to the Flyers in 1967, the Winnipeg Jets in 1979, the Lightning in 1992 and the Mighty Ducks in 1993.   The last three losses were all at  Madison Square Garden.  Their one tie was a 2-2 draw against the Hartford Whalers in 1979.

Purists may take the expansion of 1979 out of the picture since it wasn’t a true expansion as the NHL absorbed four existing WHA franchises.  Take those four games out and their all-time record is 19-3, even better.

They top that with their record when they play that first game on the road.  Remarkably, they have played only nine of those 26 games on the road and they have a record of 8-1-0.

Streaking

The Rangers take a six game road winning streak versus expansion teams into Seattle with their last and only road loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on November 16, 1967, over 50 years ago.

The Rangers have won five straight inaugural games against expansion teams, beating the Panthers (1993), Thrashers (1999), Wild (2000), Blue Jackets (2001), and finally the Golden Knights in 2017.  The last time an expansion club beat them the first time they played was on October 19, 1993 when they lost to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at Madison Square Garden by a 4-2 score.

When the Rangers beat Gerard Gallant and the Golden Knights in 2017, it was only the third time Vegas had lost in their first 11 games, but no one realized how remarkable it was that the Rangers had won.  The Golden Knights were still considered an anomaly at that point in the season.

What will happen?

The Kraken look solid, but not as good as the Golden Knights did in their inaugural season.  They lost to Vegas in the first game they ever played and opened their season with five straight road games, winning only one (1-3-1).  They’ve played their last three games on home ice, winning two of those games over Montreal and Minnesota and losing to the Canucks.

The Rangers have a chance to improve an on already solid record by beating Seattle on Sunday night.  For even more trivia, the Rangers have played expansion teams for the first time on Halloween only twice.  They beat the Los Angeles Kings 6-1 in 1967 on the road and topped the Golden Knights in 2017 by a 6-4 score.

For what it’s worth, the Rangers have played 29 times on Halloween with a record of 13-15-1.

And that, Ranger fans, is the last trivia nugget for you.

Here’s a list of their first meetings with expansion teams.

1. November 1, 1967: Rangers 2, Oakland Seals 0 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
2. October 22, 1967: Rangers 6, Pittsburgh Penguins 4 at MSG
3. October 31, 1967:  Rangers 6, Los Angeles Kings 1 at Great Western Forum
4. November 16, 1967:  Philadelphia Flyers 3, Rangers 2 at Spectrum
5. November 19, 1967: Rangers 5, Minnesota North Stars 2 at MSG
6. November 26, 1967:  Rangers 1, St. Louis Blues 0 at MSG
7. October 14, 1970:  Rangers 3, Buffalo Sabres 0 at MSG
8. December 6, 1970:  Rangers 4, Vancouver Canucks 1 at MSG
9. October 21, 1972:  Rangers 2, Islanders 1 at Nassau Coliseum
10. November 21, 1972:  Rangers 2, Atlanta Flames 1 at Omni Coliseum
11. October 9, 1974:  Rangers 6, Washington Capitals 3 at MSG
12. December 29, 1974:  Rangers 2, Kansas City Scouts 1 at MSG
13. October 24, 1979:  Rangers 10, Edmonton Oilers 2 at MSG
14. October 28, 1979:  Rangers 2, Hartford Whalers 2 at MSG
15. November 10, 1979:  Rangers 5, Quebec Nordiques 4 at MSG
16. November 21, 1979:  Winnipeg Jets 6, Rangers 4 at MSG
17. December 16, 1991: Rangers 4, San Jose Sharks 3 (Overtime) at MSG
18. October 24, 992:  Rangers 3, Ottawa Senators 2 (Overtime) at Civic Center
19. November 9, 1992:  Tampa Bay Lightning 5, Rangers 1 at MSG
20. November 16, 1993:  Rangers 4, Florida Panthers 2 at Miami Arena
21. October 19, 1993:  Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 4, Rangers 2 at MSG
22. November 29, 1989:  Rangers 5, Nashville Predators 1 at MSG
23. October 17, 1999: Rangers 4, Thrashers 1 at MSG
24. November 15, 2000:  Rangers 3, Minnesota Wild 2 at Excel Energy Center
25. February 2, 2001: Rangers 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 3 at Nationwide Arena
26. October 31, 2017:  Rangers 6, Vegas Golden Knights 4 at MSG