Meet the Rangers Competition in the National Hockey League NHL is fast and furious Competition among the sports teams in New in New York can be just as fierce The New York Rangers are one of nine ooff nniinnee major sports teams in the area They all compete for fans To be successful the Rangers need to find the right mix of mix of superstars and supporting players The top players often grab grab the headlines while their less-famous teammates do the hard rd work that a hockey team needs to win close games When n all the pieces fall into place the result is almost magical This book tells the story of the Rangers They have had some of the greatest stars in hockey history plus some of the most loyal fans in all of sports Through more than 80 years of ups and downs the Rangers have held a special place in the hearts of New Yorkers and in the history of New York Ryan Callahan jumps for joy and gets a squeeze from Anton Stralman after scoring a game-winning goal against the Carolina Hurricanes 5
Glory Days During the early 1900s hockey became very popular in New York City Fans rushed to buy tickets to watch the best professional and amateur talent on the ice In 1925 a sports promoter named Tex Rickard built a new arena on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City and called it Madison Square Garden Rickard filled the seats by staging basketball games cycling races boxing matches and the ever-popular circus An NHL team called the Americans played its games in the Garden and drew enormous crowds Rickard soon decided to start his own team The NHL was anxious to spread south from Canada and move into major American cities Placing another team in New York was a welcome idea Rickard’s club was nicknamed Tex’s Rangers which sounded 6
like a famous group of western lawmen from Texas The Rangers joined the NHL for the 1926 27 season Two of hockey’s greatest pioneers Conn Smythe and Lester Patrick assembled the roster and ran the club The Rangers were a hit from the very beginning Many entertainment celebrities attended their games and Rickard saw to it that his players were paid well and treated well In 1929 the Rangers became the first hockey team to travel to their games by airplane New York’s early stars included Frank Boucher and the Cook brothers Bill and Fred whose nickname was Bun Together they formed the high-scoring Bread Line The defense was anchored by Ching Johnson When Patrick took over as coach in the team’s second season the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup They repeated as champions in 1933 By the end of the 1930s Patrick’s two sons Lynn and Muzz were stars for the Rangers So were two other brothers Neil and Mac Colville Along with Phil Watson Bryan Hextall Clint Smith and goalie Davey Kerr they made the LEFT Tex Rickard steadies the heavy bag for boxing champ Jack Dempsey ABOVE This trading card shows Neil Colville one of the team’s stars during the 1940s 7
