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Rangers face lengthy home and road swings in 2011-12

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James

With the 2011-12 season rapidly approaching, the gang at PHT decided to take a look at all 30 NHL teams’ schedules. Each team’s highs and lows will be studied in detail to give you an idea of what the future might hold for each squad.

Note: Mileage figures via On the Forecheck’s “Super Schedule.”

New York Rangers schedule analysis

Total mileage: 36,385 (ninth lowest total in NHL, but most in Atlantic Division)

Back-to-back games: 14

Toughest stretches

The Rangers aren’t going to have an easy start to the season. They’ll kick off 2011-12 with back-to-back games in Stockholm, Sweden (Oct. 7 vs. Kings, Oct. 8 vs. Ducks) and then play five road games after a week-long break from that trip.

After a long run of home games, November gets rough as they’ll play five of six away from Madison Square Garden. No doubt about it, the first couple months of the season are going to be a challenge for the Blueshirts.

Things should go pretty smoothly for the Rangers until March, though. They’ll start that month with five of six games on the road, which should represent the last significantly bumpy run of away games.

Easiest periods

The Rangers will follow that tough start to 11-12 with a big run of home games between October and November. They’ll play six straight home games and seven of eight at MSG during that period.

The middle of the season actually resembles what you’d expect from a normal NHL schedule, but things gets strange again in March. After another lengthy road trip, the Rangers will play seven consecutive games at home. They get a night off between each of those games, so they need to make the most of that run.

Overall outlook

As much as the Rangers would probably like to complain about starting their season overseas, the Boston Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup following their own sojourn in 2010.

That being said, they certainly will face a few months of wild home and road swings, especially compared to the balanced schedules that their division rivals will generally enjoy. The Rangers’ hope is that they can keep up their good work from last year on the road (24-16-1 away record), particularly in a challenging start to the season.

It might be tough for them to win the Atlantic Division when you consider how much easier things are for their rivals, though.