If you have heard it once, you have heard it a thousand times about how much visiting athletes love competing at the Garden, how the bright lights of Broadway make a trip to the World’s Most Something Arena the most eagerly anticipated road stop of the season.
(Disclaimer: this does not necessarily apply in the dead of winter, when California, Arizona and Florida become favored destinations. Even the New Yorkiest of New Yorkers would second that sentiment.)
The point is, though, that hockey players look forward to coming to the Garden. That’s cool. Except that from the Rangers’ and Rangers fans’ point of view, the Garden should be the last place an opponent would want to play.
You want the Garden to be something like the Spectrum was in Philadelphia back in the day. You want the Garden to be akin to Fort Neverlose on the Island during the Dynasty.
You want opponents to be intimidated from the moment they step on the ice until the postgame moment they take their skate of shame through the Zamboni entrance back to the visitors’ room following a defeat.
You want the Rangers to make it a priority to protect their house and be dominant at the Garden. You’d love for head coach Peter Laviolette’s team to turn the building into their very own Fortress of Solitude.
“I think that just trying to be dominant on a daily basis is the goal,” Laviolette said hours ahead of Monday’s home-opener 2-1 win against the young and improved Coyotes. “Oftentimes teams have a better home record than road record and so the emphasis might be talking more about the road and playoff teams and finding success if you win on the road.
“I would just rather go slower than that. The game in Buffalo was pretty important. That was the first game. This is the first home game, and it’s as important. I think it’s important that we keep taking steps with our game and building off of that.”
The Blueshirts have generally been a decent team at home but won only 23 of 41 at the Garden last year, losing 13 in regulation and another five in OT or in the shootout. Not great. They were better on the road, winning 24 and amassing 56 points to 51 at home.
As Laviolette implied, you like teams that can win on the road. Teams that win on the road generally are tough playoff outs. You know the saying, “There isn’t a road way or a home way, there is a right way.”
Get this: the Blueshirts have had better road records in five of the last 10 years.
The 2011-12 Black-and-Blueshirts were 27-12-2 at the Garden. The 2014-15 Presidents’ Trophy winners went 25-11-5. There were a pair of 27-10-4s sprinkled in two years ago and in 2015-16.
This team would probably take between 54 and 58 points at home, but that does not indicate dominance. That does not indicate intimidation in a time where last year’s mighty Bruins went 34-4-3 in Boston — during the regular season before going 2-2 in the playoffs — and the Avalanche went 32-5-4 two years ago on their way to winning the Cup.
The 1993-94 Cup-winning Rangers went 28-8-6 at home. Pretty good, but not overwhelming like the 30-2-7 record the 1970-71 Blueshirts posted behind the Vezina-winning performance of Ed Giacomin and Gilles Villemure; the staunch defense of a blue line corps that included Tim Horton for the entire season; and the familiar combinations up front that featured Vic Hadfield-Jean Ratelle-Rod Gilbert; Dave Balon-Walt Tkaczuk-Bill Fairbairn and Ted Irvine-Pete Stemkowski-Bruce McGregor.
That was a year where the Garden was intimidating. Maybe some of it had to do with the relentless vulgarity that was a feature — not a flaw — of the Blue Seats. Those days are over. There is a more polite environment in the building. Karaoke has replaced obscenity.
That 1970-71 season is the only one in which the Blueshirts lost fewer than six games at any incarnation of the Garden in a home schedule of 35 games or more. That is the team’s one and only truly dominating season at home.
Would this team take the 27-10-4 mark posted in Gerard Gallant’s first year behind the bench? The answer would be in the affirmative. But could it be better? Yes, it could, and surely better than last season’s 23-13-5.
Laviolette played four of his 12 career games with the Rangers (and in the NHL) at the Garden, making his debut in a Nov. 9, 1988, 5-3 victory over the Flyers in which he picked up an interference minor in the third period.
“We talk about it sometimes,” he said. “There’s a flash when you talk about New York City and the New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden. Those three things, there’s a flash of brightness.”
That you’d like to see become blinding for opponents.