On Tuesday, the NHL announced the first three games of the 2025-26 season. The Rangers kick off their centennial campaign and start the coach Mike Sullivan era against the Penguins. On Wednesday, the NHL released the full schedule for each team. As usual, the Blueshirts have a few interesting nuggets on their schedule.
Rangers schedule overview
Sandwiched in between a home-and-home with Pittsburgh to open the season is a road game in Buffalo. New York has 13 back-to-backs this season. Seven fall in the first half of the season and six in the second, so at least it’s mildly streamlined. Because of the three-week Olympics break, like the rest of the NHL, the stretch run is back-loaded. New York plays 25 games in 49 days; two in February, 16 in March and seven in April. The Rangers end the season with three road contests versus three probable playoff teams. The run includes the defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers and Western Conference finalist, the Stars.
Home and away tour of former Rangers players
– Zac Jones on Oct. 9 in Buffalo (at MSG on 12/8)
– Filip Chytil on Oct. 28 in Vancouver (at MSG on 12/16)
– Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Lindgren on Nov. 1 in Seattle (at MSG on 1/12)
– K’Andre Miller returns to MSG with Carolina on Nov. 4 with New York in Carolina just over three weeks later (11/26)
– Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider return to MSG with Anaheim on Dec. 15 with New York in Cali on Jan 19
Other schedule highlights
– Frozen Frenzy, with all 32 teams in action, October 28.
– The Blueshirts will be on the road for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day (technically Jan 2).
– Annual three-game West Coast Canada trip will be in October, which then ends with a contest in Seattle.
– Season-long six-game road trip at the end of year including the Xmas break into January counting the Winter Classic.
– Twenty five of the first 43 games are on the road.
– Five game homestand that bridges the Olympics break, one before the stoppage in action and four after
– Aided by the three-week Olympics break, the Rangers will go 35 days without an away game, including all of February.
– New York plays 17 of their final 26 games of the season on home ice.
– Due to the “balanced schedule,” the Rangers only play the Devils three times, with all three coming after the trade deadline in a 25 day span. But wait, there’s more. The last contest against the Islanders is January 29 as part of a back-to-back. Wonderful planning by the NHL
– Seven game home stand, longest of the season, from the end of March into April, leading into three-game road trip to end the campaign.
Thanks Jan, great break down.
Hopefully they can build up a good record in the first half and can ride the home games to the playoffs (as opposed to fighting for their lives).
Without looking it up, I feel like the Rangers have done pretty well on the second half of their back to backs over the past 10-15 years. I’m wonder how the Penguins did under Sullivan in these situations.
I feel like that started under Torts and his work their ass off methods. Honestly feel like that’s dropped off in the past few years but I’m too lazy to look at the stats lol