New York Rangers Seasons

New York Rangers Seasons

The New York Rangers are an American ice hockey franchise that compete in the National Hockey League (NHL). One of the NHL's "Original Six" teams, the Rangers play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Since 1968, the team has played its home games in Madison Square Garden. In 85 completed seasons, the team has won four Stanley Cup championships and has qualified for the playoffs fifty-four times. As of the end of the 2011–12 season, New York has won more than 2,500 regular-season games, the fifth-highest victory total among NHL teams.

The Rangers were founded in 1926, and won their first Stanley Cup title in 1928, making them the first U.S.-based NHL franchise to win the Cup. Over the next 12 seasons, New York reached the Stanley Cup Finals five times and won twice, in 1933 and 1940. The Rangers then entered a period of decline; from 1943 to 1966, New York missed the playoffs 18 times. During that time, the Rangers reached the 1950 Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the Detroit Red Wings. In the 1970s, the Rangers made the Stanley Cup Finals twice, but were defeated by the Boston Bruins in 1972 and by the Montreal Canadiens in 1979. Thirteen years later, in the 1991–92 season, New York won the Presidents' Trophy by leading the NHL in regular-season points with 105. The team, however, was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

After missing the playoffs in the 1992–93 season, the Rangers accumulated 112 points in the 1993–94 season, a team record, and won their second Presidents' Trophy. With a seven-game victory against the Vancouver Canucks in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals, the Rangers ended a 54-year Stanley Cup drought. After reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in 1997, the Rangers did not return to the playoffs until 2006. In their most recent season, 2011–12, the Rangers made the playoffs as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and reached the Conference Finals before falling to the New Jersey Devils in six games.