Rangers excelled on Christmas Day for 2 decades

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight with readers each Wednesday.

In line with the holiday season, this week spins a yarn about an NHL era when it seemed as if Santa Claus was in the private employ of the New York Rangers.

You won't find Santa's name in the NHL Record Book or any Who's Who in Hockey but there was a period from 1927 to 1947 when Christmas was the Rangers' favorite holiday. If you check the scores, you might get the impression that a fellow named Claus climbed into the familiar blue shirt and got on the ice with general manager Lester Patrick's team.

"We liked to kid that -- thanks to Santa -- the Rangers played seven against six," said former Rangers publicity director Stan Saplin, "but they've never been penalized by the referee nor censured by league headquarters."

Those were the days -- no longer with us -- when it was commonplace for the NHL to feature Christmas games and nobody benefited more than the Rangers. Starting in 1927, and for a decade thereafter, the Rangers were scheduled for 16 Christmas Night games.

"They were beaten only once," said Saplin who researched and discovered the skein. "That was in 1928 when their Madison Square (Garden) rivals, the New York Americans, beat them, 1-0. Ironically, that was the year Lester Patrick's team was the defending Cup champs.

"The 1933 Blueshirt Cup winners won their Santa game over the Montreal Maroons, 3-0, and the '40 Cup champs tied Chicago 3-3. All told they won 14 other Dec. 25th engagements, seven by shutouts."

During World War II, the Rangers roster was decimated by enlistments into the United States Armed Forces. By 1943-44, coach Frank Boucher had a patchwork lineup, winning only six games all season. Yet on Christmas night they visited Toronto and defeated the Maple Leafs 5-3.

As for shutouts, on Christmas 1931 they defeated the New York Americans, 6-0, and the Maroons 2-0 and 3-0, respectively, on Christmas 1932 and 1933. In 1938, Santa helped them triumph against the Boston Bruins, 1-0. Those mighty Rangers went on to win the Stanley Cup the following season.

A feature of the 1946 Christmas festivities took place in the afternoon when Madison Square Garden president, burly Gen. John Reed Kilpatrick, donned the colorful Santa outfit and doled out gifts to the Rangers, their wives and children.

"The general loved playing Santa as much as he loved running the arena," Saplin remembered, "but what he liked even better in '46 was that his team beat (Maurice) Rocket Richard and the defending Cup champion Canadiens 2-0 that night."

Santa was also a fine defensive player for the Rangers. They were 25-10 with two ties in 37 games on Christmas, according to NHL Stats, from their inaugural season (1926-27) through 1971, after which NHL games were no longer played Dec. 25. New York played 16 times on Christmas from 1930 to '49, going 15-0 with one tie and holding opponents to a combined 15 goals in 16 games.

Maybe Santa deserves a banner hanging from the rafters, since he allowed less than a goal a game!