How have the Rangers done in new arena debuts?

Wednesday, the New York Rangers will play their first game at the brand new home of the New York Islanders, the UBS Arena.  It’s the third home for the Islanders and they are still looking for a win in their new digs.  The Rangers will be looking to make that hunt for a first win last at least another day.

How have the Rangers fared the first time they have visited a new arena?   When it comes to the Islanders, the Rangers played them for the first time in the Nassau Coliseum on September 27, 1972, a 6-4 preseason win for the Blueshirts.

The first regular season game at the “old barn” was on October 21, 1972 and the Rangers eked out a 2-1 win over a horrible Islanders team.   The first goal by a Ranger at the Coliseum was scored by Vic Hadfield.   The game winner came in the third period by Bobby Rousseau.

The Blueshirts lost their first game at the Barclays Center on December 2, 2015.  The final score was 2-1 and it ended in a shootout.  The first goal by a Ranger at Barclays was scored by Viktor Stalberg.  In the shootout, all Ranger attempts were rebuffed by Jaroslav Halak while Kyle Okposo scored against Henrik Lundqvist.

Feel free to make your prediction on who will score the first New York Rangers’ goal at the UBS Arena in the comments section below.  We’ll go off the board and predict Julien Gauthier.

Other debuts

There are 30 other NHL arenas that the Rangers have visited for the first time and their all-time record is 16-13-1.  They’ve won six of their last eight first appearances with the most recent a 3-1 win at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Halloween.

Madison Square Garden is the oldest arena in the NHL, opening in 1968.   Next oldest is the Saddledome in Calgary that opened in 1983-84.  The Rangers first visit to the Saddledome was an 8-1 loss on February 2, 1984.

Here’s some other trivia about the Rangers’ first visit to new arenas:

• The Rangers didn’t play in two arenas the year they opened. They had to wait a season to play in the Kiel Center in St. Louis and the United Center in Chicago because of the 1994-95 lockout.
• The biggest year for visiting new arenas was 1996 when the Rangers played their first games in five cities (Boston, Ottawa, Montreal, Tampa, Buffalo).
• The biggest season for visiting new arenas was 1999-00 when the Rangers played in five arenas for the first time (Colorado, Vancouver, Toronto, Carolina, Los Angeles).
• The Rangers have never played the first regular season game ever at a new arena, except for the first NHL game at Madison Square Garden (of course).
• The most goals they scored in a first visit was in a 7-4 win over Nashville in February 1999.  The most allowed was in that 8-1 loss to Calgary in 1984.
• There have been two shutouts, the first a 3-0 win in Buffalo in 1996 and the second a 1-0 loss to Carolina in 2000.
• The only tie was a 1-1 decision in November 1995 against the St. Louis Blues.
• Oh yes, the Rangers won their first game at the new (fourth version) Madison Square Garden, a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on October 16, 1968.
• Madison Square Garden remains the only arena in the NHL without a corporate naming deal.
• Of the 29 arenas that were built before this season, eight have the same name that they opened with.
• The Bell Centre in Montreal owns the longevity record with the same name since 1996.
• Five arenas debuted without a corporate sponsorship.

That’s it for new arena trivia, probably more information than you ever wanted to know. Let’s see how the Rangers do on Wednesday in the UBS Arena.

List of debuts

Here’s a list of the dates when the Rangers played their first game at the various arenas still in use. The list included the name of the arena when they played there and the current name in parentheses:

1983-84
2-2-84  Calgary Olympic Saddledome (Scotiabank Saddledome):  LOSE 1-8

1993-94
1-25-94  San Jose Arena (SAP Center): WIN 8-3
1-28-94  Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (Honda Center): LOSE 2-3

1995-96
11-14-95 St. Louis Kiel Center (Enterprise Center): TIE 1-1   (second year due to lockout)
11-16-95  Chicago United Center:  LOSE  1-3  (second year due to lockout)
1-27-96 Boston Fleet Center (TD Garden): WIN  5-3
2-17-96   Ottawa  Corel Centre (Canadien Tire Centre): WIN  2-1

1996-97
10-12-96  Montreal Bell Centre:  LOSE  2-5
10-20-96  Tampa Ice Palace (Amalie Arena) : LOSE  2-5
12-13-96  Buffalo Marine Midland Arena (Keybank Center): WIN  3-0

1997-98
1-3-98    Washington MCI Center  (Capital One Arena): WIN  3-2
3-22-98  Philadelphia CoreStates Center (Wells Fargo Center): LOSE  4-5

1998-99
11-11-98  Florida National Car Rental Center  (FLA Live Arena) LOSE  1-4
2-15-99   Nashville Arena (Bridgestone Arena): WIN  7-4

1999-00
11-5-99   Colorado Ball Arena (Pepsi Center ) : LOSE  1-4
12-28-99  Vancouver General Motors Place (Rogers Arena) :  WIN  3-2
1-8-00   Toronto Air Canada Centre (Scotiabank Arena): WIN  5-3
1-9-00   Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena (PNC Arena): LOSE  0-1
3-9-00 Los Angeles Staples Center : LOSE  1-3

2000-01
11-15-00  Minnesota Xcel Energy Center: WIN  3-2
2-12-01  Columbus Nationwide Arena:  WIN  4-3

2001-02
2-13-02  Dallas  American Airline Arena:  LOSE  2-4

2003-04
12-29-03   Arizona Glendale Arena  (Gila River Arena): WIN  3-2

2007-08
11-14-07  New Jersey Prudential Center: WIN  4-2

2010-11
11-15-10  Pittsburgh CONSOL Energy Center  (PPG Paints Arena):  WIN  3-2

2011-012
10-24-11  Winnipeg MTS Centre (Canada Life Centre):  WIN  2-1

2016-17
11-13-16  Edmonton Rogers Place:   WIN  3-1

2017-18
12-29-17  Detroit Little Caesars Arena: LOSE  2-3
1-17-18  Vegas T-Mobile Arena:   LOSE  1-2

2021-22
10-31-21 Seattle Climate Pledge Arena : WIN  3-1
11-24-21 Islanders UBS Arena:  ?????