NHL releases new schedule, not great for Rangers

The NHL had a house of cards to build and they finally finished, releasing the schedule for the rest of the season.  They had to reschedule postponements and change the dates of previously scheduled games.  Unfortunately for the New York Rangers, the new schedule doesn’t do them any favors.

Here’s how it affects the Rangers.

• The Rangers game at home versus the Boston Bruins scheduled for April 24 has been moved to February 15.
• The game at MSG against the Detroit Red Wings postponed from December 27 has been rescheduled for February 17.
• The Rangers game in Ottawa versus the Senators that was postponed on November 20 has been rescheduled for February 20.
• The game versus Montreal at MSG postponed from December 22 has been rescheduled for April 27.

What it means

The hope was that the league would make an attempt to balance out the schedule for all of the teams and not just use the dates opened up by the Olympics opt-out for postponed games.  That was not to be.

It means that the Rangers will have a month of February with only seven games in 28 days followed by the month of March with 15 games in 31 days and the month of April with 14 games in 29 days. The number of games they play in March and April is unchanged.

In essence, February becomes the make-up month for teams drastically affected by COVID postponements while teams that managed to stay healthy will have most of the month off.

As far as the Rangers’ Metropolitan Division rivals, the good news is they’re mostly in the same boat.

• Washington has five games added to their February schedule and has one fewer game in April.
• Carolina will play eight additional games in February with one fewer game in April.
• Pittsburgh will play seven additional games in February and one fewer game in April.

Let’s not forget that the Rangers already had a game added in April when their November 28 game with the Islanders was moved to April 17.   That means that the Rangers are the only team among the top four teams in the Met Division to have to play one more game in April while he other three play one less.

It may not seem like a lot, but considering that the Rangers will be playing practically every other day for the last two months of the season, even adding one game doesn’t help.  Subtracting one does.

February

If anyone was wondering how Mika Zibanejad knew he had a personal issue that precluded his going to the All-Star Game, we have the answer.  The Rangers play Florida at home on Tuesday, February 1, then are off until Tuesday, February 15 when they host the Boston Bruins.  It’s safe to assume that Zibanejad knew about the schedule revision and planned a long vacation back in Sweden.

Here’s the full schedule for February:

• Tuesday, February 1 – Florida
• Tuesday, February 15 – Boston
• Thursday, February 17 – Detroit
• Sunday, February 20 – At Ottawa
• Thursday, February 24 – Washington
• Saturday,  February 26 – At Pittsburgh
• Sunday, February 27 – Vancouver

That’s five homes games, two road games and one set of back-to-back games.  All of the games are against Eastern Conference rival except the last game of the month vs Vancouver.

Of all the teams that they play, only Ottawa has a rigorous February schedule with a stretch of 10 games in 16 games.  The Rangers should be very well rested.