Rangers were nearly unbeatable playing on Christmas for two 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.
The week -- with Christmas just days away -- Fischler tells a hockey-related Christmas story about how Santa Claus "gifted" the New York Rangers with wins on Christmas for 10 straight seasons. During that streak, New York composer J. Fred Coots -- an avid Rangers fan -- wrote both "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" as well as "The Rangers Victory Song."

It may have been coincidence or it may not.
But this much is certain: the multi-hit Broadway composer J.Fred Coots, Santa Claus and the New York Rangers once were closely linked at Christmas. For many seasons on Christmas Day, Santa Claus gifted the Rangers with a win and Coots had the tune to go with it.
Like many show business types during the 1930's, Coots was a Rangers fan and would escort many of his famous friends, like actors George Raft and Edward G. Robinson, to seats right behind the players' bench at Madison Square Garden.
But Coots carried his passionate fandom to new heights. He translated his hockey vibes to the keyboard and composed an icy anthem: "The Rangers Victory Song." What's more, he dedicated it to Rangers boss Lester Patrick.
In that same era of the 1930's, Coots also composed the Christmas hit, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," just one of more than 700 tunes he wrote. Santa Claus soon became revered in The Big Apple as an unofficial Rangers fan. After all, he gifted the Rangers with victories for so many years, you'd have thought he was on the payroll.

"Almost from the start of the franchise, we got the distinct impression that Santa Claus was on the Rangers side," former Rangers publicist Herb Goren said.
Check the records and you'll see that the Rangers hardly ever lost a hockey game on Christmas night.
"In one stretch, from 1930 to 1950 -- a great score of years -- the 'Blueshirts' didn't lose at all on Christmas night," Goren explained. "The streak started in 1930 with a 4-1 win over Ottawa. It ended with a 3-1 victory over Toronto in 1949."
Starting with their inaugural season (1926-27) and through 1971 -- after which NHL games were no longer played on Dec. 25 -- the Rangers record on Christmas was an
impressive 24-11-2. At one stretch, the Rangers played 16 times on Christmas and emerged with a 15-0-1 record.
Rangers Publicist Stan Saplin (1946-50), who compiled the club's first comprehensive yearbook, "Inside The Blue Shirt," got a lot of ink out of Santa and winning hockey.
"The most extraordinary thing," Saplin noted, "was that during the war seasons from 1942-43 through 1944-45 when the Rangers had, by far, the worst team in the NHL, Santa remained good to the boys in blue."
On Christmas night 1942, the depleted Rangers skated at Olympia Stadium and stunned the soon-to-be Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, 3-1. A year later, Santa smiled on coach Frank Boucher's team at Maple Leaf Gardens where the Rangers rarely won. The score was 5-3 for the Rangers.
"This was Santa at work," grinned Boucher who had little else to smile about at that time.
"Everyone in the League believed the Rangers were Santa's favorites -- for one night at least," Boucher explained.

The first time the Rangers lost a game on Christmas night was in 1928, during their second season. They dropped that one 1-0 to the New York Americans, who shared Madison Square Garden with them.
From that night on -- and for 27 straight seasons -- the Rangers never lost a game in front of their home fans on Christmas. But in 1955, the Rangers faced a supreme challenge on home ice.
"The writers made a big deal out of that one," Goren recalled, "because we were up against one of the great teams of all-time. The [Montreal] Canadiens would go on to win five straight Stanley Cups."
Santa's gift that Christmas night was a 5-1 rout of the future champions. And by that time, the Santa Claus craze had reached the Rangers high command, including
MSG President, General John Reed Kilpatrick -- a plump, red-cheeked Santa lookalike if ever there was one.
"Dressing up as Santa at the Rangers annual Christmas party became a big, happy deal with The General every holiday, except one," Saplin explained. "Not knowing about Kilpatrick's Santa act, one Christmas, our center Phil Watson donned the outfit before the team party.
"When The General arrived and saw that Watson had upstaged him, he had a fit. So, we had Phil do a quick change. We wanted to be sure the right Santa was on our side before our game on Christmas night."
Perhaps the biggest Christmas test occurred in 1949 when the Rangers faced the three-time Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs.
Saplin remembered that as the clock ticked toward midnight, the Garden's scoreboard proclaimed that, once again, Santa Claus had come to town -- 3-1 Rangers.
For those packing the stands, it was, in fact, a Merry Christmas to all -- and to all a (truly) good night!