1997–98 New York Rangers season

1997–98 New York Rangers
Division	5th Atlantic
Conference	11th Eastern
1997–98 record	25–39–18
Goals for	197
Goals against	231
Team information
General manager	Neil Smith
Coach	Colin Campbell/John Muckler
Captain	Brian Leetch
Arena	Madison Square Garden
Team leaders
Goals	Wayne Gretzky/Alexei Kovalev/Pat LaFontaine/Brian Leetch (23)
Assists	Wayne Gretzky (67)
Points	Wayne Gretzky (90)
Penalty minutes	Darren Langdon (197)
Wins	Mike Richter (21)
Goals against average	Dan Cloutier (2.50)

The 1997–98 New York Rangers season was the 72nd season for the team in the National Hockey League. The Rangers posted a 25–39–18 record in the regular season and finished in fifth place in the Atlantic Division. New York missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 1992–93 season.

Regular season

Final standings

Atlantic Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
New Jersey Devils	82	48	23	11	225	166	107
Philadelphia Flyers	82	42	29	11	242	193	95
Washington Capitals	82	40	30	12	219	202	92
New York Islanders	82	30	41	11	212	225	71
New York Rangers	82	25	39	18	197	231	68
Florida Panthers	82	24	43	15	203	256	63
Tampa Bay Lightning	82	17	55	10	151	269	44

Game log

#	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	T	Oct 3, 1997	2–2 OT	New York Islanders	0–0–1
2	T	Oct 5, 1997	2–2 OT	Los Angeles Kings	0–0–2
3	T	Oct 8, 1997	3–3 OT	@ Edmonton Oilers	0–0–3
4	T	Oct 9, 1997	1–1 OT	@ Calgary Flames	0–0–4
5	W	Oct 11, 1997	6–3	@ Vancouver Canucks	1–0–4
6	L	Oct 14, 1997	0–1	Pittsburgh Penguins	1–1–4
7	L	Oct 15, 1997	1–5	@ Ottawa Senators	1–2–4
8	L	Oct 18, 1997	3–5	@ St. Louis Blues	1–3–4
9	W	Oct 20, 1997	4–2	Carolina Hurricanes	2–3–4
10	L	Oct 22, 1997	0–1	Chicago Blackhawks	2–4–4
11	W	Oct 24, 1997	4–3	Tampa Bay Lightning	3–4–4
12	T	Oct 26, 1997	3–3 OT	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	3–4–5
13	L	Oct 28, 1997	2–3	Dallas Stars	3–5–5
14	L	Oct 30, 1997	3–5	@ New York Islanders	3–6–5
15	T	Nov 3, 1997	2–2 OT	Edmonton Oilers	3–6–6
16	W	Nov 5, 1997	4–2	@ Colorado Avalanche	4–6–6
17	T	Nov 7, 1997	2–2 OT	@ Dallas Stars	4–6–7
18	L	Nov 12, 1997	2–3	New Jersey Devils	4–7–7
19	W	Nov 14, 1997	3–1	Pittsburgh Penguins	5–7–7
20	W	Nov 16, 1997	4–1	Colorado Avalanche	6–7–7
21	W	Nov 18, 1997	3–1	@ Florida Panthers	7–7–7
22	L	Nov 19, 1997	3–6	@ Tampa Bay Lightning	7–8–7
23	W	Nov 21, 1997	4–3	@ Carolina Hurricanes	8–8–7
24	L	Nov 22, 1997	3–4 OT	@ Pittsburgh Penguins	8–9–7
25	L	Nov 25, 1997	2–4	Vancouver Canucks	8–10–7
26	L	Nov 26, 1997	1–4	@ New York Islanders	8–11–7
27	T	Nov 28, 1997	3–3 OT	@ Buffalo Sabres	8–11–8
28	T	Nov 30, 1997	1–1 OT	Florida Panthers	8–11–9
29	L	Dec 2, 1997	2–3 OT	Washington Capitals	8–12–9
30	T	Dec 5, 1997	4–4 OT	Philadelphia Flyers	8–12–10
31	T	Dec 6, 1997	3–3 OT	@ Montreal Canadiens	8–12–11
32	W	Dec 8, 1997	3–1	Phoenix Coyotes	9–12–11
33	L	Dec 10, 1997	1–4	Calgary Flames	9–13–11
34	L	Dec 12, 1997	3–4	Florida Panthers	9–14–11
35	L	Dec 16, 1997	3–4	@ New Jersey Devils	9–15–11
36	W	Dec 17, 1997	4–2	@ Florida Panthers	10–15–11
37	T	Dec 20, 1997	2–2 OT	@ Tampa Bay Lightning	10–15–12
38	L	Dec 21, 1997	0–2	Buffalo Sabres	10–16–12
39	W	Dec 23, 1997	4–1	Tampa Bay Lightning	11–16–12
40	L	Dec 26, 1997	0–3	@ Buffalo Sabres	11–17–12
41	W	Dec 28, 1997	4–3	Boston Bruins	12–17–12
42	L	Dec 31, 1997	0–2	@ Tampa Bay Lightning	12–18–12
43	W	Jan 3, 1998	3–2	@ Washington Capitals	13–18–12
44	W	Jan 6, 1998	4–2	Carolina Hurricanes	14–18–12
45	L	Jan 8, 1998	3–5	Washington Capitals	14–19–12
46	W	Jan 12, 1998	3–2	Toronto Maple Leafs	15–19–12
47	L	Jan 14, 1998	1–4	@ New Jersey Devils	15–20–12
48	W	Jan 20, 1998	3–1	St. Louis Blues	16–20–12
49	L	Jan 22, 1998	3–4	Philadelphia Flyers	16–21–12
50	T	Jan 24, 1998	3–3 OT	New Jersey Devils	16–21–13
51	T	Jan 26, 1998	2–2 OT	Washington Capitals	16–21–14
52	T	Jan 29, 1998	2–2 OT	@ Ottawa Senators	16–21–15
53	L	Jan 31, 1998	2–4	@ Boston Bruins	16–22–15
54	W	Feb 2, 1998	3–2	@ San Jose Sharks	17–22–15
55	L	Feb 4, 1998	2–3	@ Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	17–23–15
56	L	Feb 5, 1998	1–3	@ Los Angeles Kings	17–24–15
57	T	Feb 7, 1998	1–1 OT	@ Phoenix Coyotes	17–24–16
58	W	Feb 26, 1998	5–2	@ Toronto Maple Leafs	18–24–16
59	L	Feb 28, 1998	1–3	Philadelphia Flyers	18–25–16
60	L	Mar 2, 1998	0–1	Buffalo Sabres	18–26–16
61	W	Mar 4, 1998	4–3	@ Florida Panthers	19–26–16
62	L	Mar 7, 1998	3–6	@ New Jersey Devils	19–27–16
63	T	Mar 9, 1998	2–2 OT	New Jersey Devils	19–27–17
64	W	Mar 11, 1998	5–3	San Jose Sharks	20–27–17
65	L	Mar 12, 1998	1–4	@ Montreal Canadiens	20–28–17
66	L	Mar 14, 1998	1–5	@ Boston Bruins	20–29–17
67	W	Mar 16, 1998	5–4	Ottawa Senators	21–29–17
68	W	Mar 18, 1998	2–1 OT	Montreal Canadiens	22–29–17
69	L	Mar 21, 1998	3–4	Detroit Red Wings	22–30–17
70	L	Mar 22, 1998	4–5 OT	@ Philadelphia Flyers	22–31–17
71	L	Mar 25, 1998	2–3 OT	Ottawa Senators	22–32–17
72	L	Mar 26, 1998	1–4	@ Carolina Hurricanes	22–33–17
73	T	Mar 28, 1998	2–2 OT	@ Pittsburgh Penguins	22–33–18
74	L	Mar 30, 1998	1–3	Tampa Bay Lightning	22–34–18
75	L	Apr 1, 1998	2–4	Boston Bruins	22–35–18
76	L	Apr 4, 1998	0–3	@ New York Islanders	22–36–18
77	W	Apr 5, 1998	2–1 OT	@ Chicago Blackhawks	23–36–18
78	L	Apr 7, 1998	2–3	Montreal Canadiens	23–37–18
79	L	Apr 11, 1998	2–5	@ Detroit Red Wings	23–38–18
80	L	Apr 14, 1998	1–3	@ Washington Capitals	23–39–18
81	W	Apr 15, 1998	4–2	New York Islanders	24–39–18
82	W	Apr 18, 1998	2–1	@ Philadelphia Flyers	25–39–18

Player stats

Regular season
Scoring
Player Pos GP G A Pts PIM +/- PPG SHG GWG Gretzky, WayneWayne Gretzky C 82 23 67 90 28 -11 6 0 4 LaFontaine, PatPat LaFontaine C 67 23 39 62 36 -16 11 0 2 Kovalev, AlexAlex Kovalev RW 73 23 30 53 44 -22 8 0 3 Leetch, BrianBrian Leetch D 76 17 33 50 32 -36 11 0 2 Sundstrom, NiklasNiklas Sundstrom RW 70 19 28 47 24 0 4 0 1 Stevens, KevinKevin Stevens LW 80 14 27 41 130 -7 5 0 3 Graves, AdamAdam Graves LW 72 23 12 35 41 -30 10 0 2 Sweeney, TimTim Sweeney LW 56 11 18 29 26 7 2 0 1 Driver, BruceBruce Driver D 75 5 15 20 46 -3 1 0 0 Keane, MikeMike Keane RW 70 8 10 18 47 -12 2 0 0 Samuelsson, UlfUlf Samuelsson D 73 3 9 12 122 1 0 0 2 Skrudland, BrianBrian Skrudland C 59 5 6 11 39 -4 0 0 1 Eastwood, MikeMike Eastwood C 48 5 5 10 16 -2 0 0 0 Karpovtsev, AlexanderAlexander Karpovtsev D 47 3 7 10 38 -1 1 0 1 Berg, BillBill Berg LW 67 1 9 10 55 -15 1 0 0 Finley, JeffJeff Finley D 63 1 6 7 55 -3 0 0 0 Langdon, DarrenDarren Langdon LW 70 3 3 6 197 0 0 0 0 Savard, MarcMarc Savard C 28 1 5 6 4 -4 0 0 0 Stock, P.J.P.J. Stock C 38 2 3 5 114 4 0 0 1 Beukeboom, JeffJeff Beukeboom D 63 0 5 5 195 -25 0 0 0 Vorobiev, VladimirVladimir Vorobiev LW 15 2 2 4 6 -10 0 0 1 Lindbom, JohanJohan Lindbom LW 38 1 3 4 28 4 0 0 0 Lidster, DougDoug Lidster D 36 0 4 4 24 2 0 0 0 Cairns, EricEric Cairns D 39 0 3 3 92 -3 0 0 0 Goneau, DanielDaniel Goneau LW 11 2 0 2 4 -4 0 0 1 Smith, GeoffGeoff Smith D 15 1 1 2 6 -4 1 0 0 VandenBussche, RyanRyan VandenBussche RW 16 1 0 1 38 -2 0 0 0 Galanov, MaximMaxim Galanov D 6 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 Richter, MikeMike Richter G 72 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 Blouin, SylvainSylvain Blouin LW 1 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 Cloutier, DanDan Cloutier G 12 0 0 0 19 0 0 0 0 Errey, BobBob Errey LW 12 0 0 0 7 -5 0 0 0 Ferraro, PeterPeter Ferraro LW 1 0 0 0 2 -2 0 0 0 Muzzatti, JasonJason Muzzatti G 6 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 Sevigny, PierrePierre Sevigny LW 3 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Smyth, BradBrad Smyth RW 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sundin, RonnieRonnie Sundin D 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 York, HarryHarry York C 2 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0
Goaltending
Player MIN GP W L T GA GAA SO SA SV SV% Richter, MikeMike Richter 4143 72 21 31 15 184 2.66 0 1888 1704 .903 Cloutier, DanDan Cloutier 551 12 4 5 1 23 2.50 0 248 225 .907 Muzzatti, JasonJason Muzzatti 313 6 0 3 2 17 3.26 0 156 139 .891 Team: 5007 82 25 39 18 224 2.68 0 2292 2068 .902

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals
      MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

See also

• 1997–98 NHL season

References

• 1997-98 New York Rangers Statistics

Notes