3 Fun Facts About the New York Rangers

The New York Rangers were founded in 1926 as an expansion team in the early days of the NHL. 1926 was a crazy year. That year the first lip reading tournament was held in America. One participant said, “My wife and I were in the contest, and it so happened that I had to read her lips. She said, “I would like a divorce and I’m taking the house.”

The Rangers are true OGs of the NHL, not only one of the oldest teams in the league, but considered one of the Original Six that includes the Bruins, the Blackhawks, the Red Wings, the Maple Leafs and the Canadiens. League play became sort of tedious with only six teams, so they worked in an extra team for variety called the Minneapolis Mad Hatters. A former Mad Hatter said, “We settled on Mad Hatters, but we also seriously considered the Minneapolis Mary Tyler Moores and the Minneapolis It’s So Cold I Can’t Feel My Toes.”

The Rangers were the second NHL team in Madison Square Garden — the New York Americans started play the previous year. The Americans went out of business in 1942. A league official explained: “Their last season they became the Brooklyn Americans, with the slogan, ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn!’ And no profits either, apparently.”