New York Rangers Tickets Continued
Founded: 1926-1927 (awarded May 15, 1926)
Arena: Madison Square Garden IV (capacity 18,200)
Former Home Arena: Madison Square Garden III (1926-1968)
Uniform colors: blue, red, white
Logo design: a shield with "NEW YORK" across the top and "RANGERS" diagonally across the middle, creating a red triangle on the top right and a white one on the bottom left.
Stanley Cup final appearances: (4 won, 5 lost) (1928 (won), 1929 (lost), 1932 (lost), 1933 (won), 1940 (won), 1950 (lost), 1972 (lost), 1979 (lost), 1994 (won))
Team color jersey: Royal blue jersey with red and white stripes at elbows and bottom of jersey. "RANGERS" diagonally across chest from right shoulder in red with white trim. (The team has been long known by the nicknames Broadway Blues and Blueshirts.)
White jersey: White jersey with red, white and blue stripes at elbows, across shoulders and at bottom of jersey. Blue stripe at cuff. "RANGERS" diagonally across chest from right shoulder in blue with red trim.
Third Jersey: Navy blue jersey with white and silver stripes at elbows with red forearm. Chest logo features silver Statue of Liberty head on navy blue background and the letters "NYR" in red and silver. Stylized original Rangers shield on top of each shoulder.
Note: One of the NHL's 'Original Six' franchises, along with the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Main Rival(s): New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers.
The Rangers continued to be Cup favorites in the mid-to-late 1990s, even landing an aging Wayne Gretzky, but they would fizzle out. Their 1994 stars were aging and many retired or dropped off in performance. After General Manager Neil Smith ran Messier out of town in the summer of 1997 and failed in a bid to replace him with Avalanche superstar Joe Sakic, the Rangers began a streak of seven seasons (and counting) without making the playoffs.
In March 2000, Smith was fired along with head coach John Muckler, and that summer James Dolan hired Glen Sather to replace him. By 2001, the Rangers had landed a lot of star power. Theoren Fleury joined the Rangers after spending most of his career with the Calgary Flames. Eric Lindros joined the Rangers from the Philadelphia Flyers. They got Pavel Bure late in the 2001-02 season from the Florida Panthers. However, the Rangers still finished out of the playoffs despite having the league's highest payroll. Later years saw other stars such as Alexei Kovalev, Jaromir Jagr, Anson Carter and Bobby Holik added, but in 2002-03 and 2003-04, the team again missed the playoffs. Owners of the highest team payroll with numerous star players coupled with their consistent failure to make the post-season (7 seasons and counting) has earned the Rangers the honor of being the NHL's poster child for underachievers.
Towards the end of the 2003-04 season, Sather finally gave in to a rebuilding process, and traded away Leetch, Kovalev, and eight others for numerous prospects and draft picks. Bure is now retired, while Lindros signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the 2005-06 season.
The post lock-out Rangers, under new head coach Tom Renney, have seen the team move away from the high priced veterans for recent years towards a group of young talented players such as Petr Prucha, Dominic Moore and Blair Betts but the focus of the team remains superstar Jaromir Jagr. The Rangers were largely expected to struggle during 2005/06 but behind stellar performances by Swedish rookie goalie Henrik Lundqvist, surprising Czech rookie Petr Průcha and Jagr, the Rangers are currently near the top of the Atlantic Division halfway into the season, boasting their best record since the last time they made the playoffs in '97.
