On December 9 in NYR history: 6 years since a successful penalty shot

What happened on December 9 in the history of the New York Rangers

Believe it or not, the last time a New York Rangers player scored on a penalty shot was six years ago on this date.    It was defenseman Dan Boyle who scored on his first penalty shot in 1,042 NHL games.   It was a pretty straightforward shot as he moved in on Canucks goalie Ryan Miller, made the deke and put it past the sprawled netminder.

Despite Boyle’s heroics, the Rangers lost 2-1 in Vancouver.

Since that goal the Rangers have failed on eight straight attempts in  six-year drought.  Since the penalty shot was instituted in the 1934-35 season, the longest period without a Rangers penalty shot goal was 10 years and 11 months from November 1945 to October 1956. You cannot accuse them of being unable to score since they were not awarded a penalty shot in that time, the longest period of time without even an attempt.

Unbelievably, over 11 years have passed since fans at Madison Square Garden have seen a successful penalty shot.  That last happened in February 2010 when Sean Avery scored in a 5-2 win over Tampa.  Since then, they have missed on five attempts at the Garden. The Rangers took two penalty shots last season with the last attempt by Chris Kreider in April against the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-2 loss at MSG.

A first for the Coyotes

On this date in 1996, the Phoenix Coyotes played their first game at Madison Square Garden after the team had relocated from Winnipeg.  The Rangers won easily, 5-2, behind two goals by Niklas Sundstrom and three assists for Wayne Gretzky.

The Garden has not been a happy place for the Coyotes.  Since that day in 1996, they have played 18 games at MSG and have won only four, going 4-10-4 in that time.

Today’s birthdays

21 NHL players have been born on December 9, but only two wore the Rangers uniform.

Petr Nedved was born on this date in 1971 in Liberec, Czechoslovakia.   Nedved played 478 games for the Blueshirts over seven seasons in two different stints with the team scoring 149 goals and 351 points.   He was the third player from Czechoslovakia to play for the team after Vaclav Nedomansky and Miloslav Horava.  Acquired from St. Louis in 1994 for Esa Tikkanen and Doug Lidster, the center found himself out of favor with Mark Messier who was instrumental in his trade to Pittsburgh the next summer.   The Rangers got him back from Pittsburgh in exchange for Alex Kovalev in 1998 after Messier had left the team.   Petr Nedved is in the Rangers record books with three hat tricks in 1999-00, tied for second most in one season in franchise history behind Tomas Sandstrom with four hat tricks in 1986-87.

Noel Price was born on this date in 1935 in Brockville, Ontario.  He played eight games for the Rangers in two seasons, not scoring a point.  The defenseman was the beneficiary of NHL expansion as he eventually played for the Kings, Penguins and Flames before retiring in 1976 after 14 years and 500 games.

The numbers

The Rangers have played 36 times on December 9 in franchise history.  They are over .500 for the date with only 11 regulation losses.

Games:  36
Regulation wins:  14
Regulation losses:  11
Ties:  8
Overtime wins: 2
Overtime losses:  1
Points percentage:   .569