1998–99 New York Rangers season

1998–99 New York Rangers
Division	4th Atlantic
Conference	11th Eastern
1998–99 record	33–38–11
Home record	17–19–5
Road record	16–19–6
Goals for	217
Goals against	227
Team information
General manager	Neil Smith
Coach	John Muckler
Captain	Brian Leetch
Alternate captains	Adam Graves Unknown
Arena	Madison Square Garden
Average attendance	18,200 (100%)
Team leaders
Goals	Adam Graves (38)
Assists	Wayne Gretzky (53)
Points	Wayne Gretzky (62)
Penalty minutes	Ulf Samuelsson (93)
Wins	Mike Richter (27)
Goals against average	Mike Richter (2.63)

Wayne Gretzky's Farewell Game at Madison Square Garden

The 1998–99 New York Rangers season was the 73rd season for the franchise. The aspect of the season was that it was Wayne Gretzky’s final season.

Offseason

NHL Draft

Round	#	Player	Nationality	College/junior/club team
1	7	Manny Malhotra (C)	Canada	Guelph Storm (OHL)

Regular season

Final standings

Atlantic Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	PTS
New Jersey Devils	82	47	24	11	248	196	105
Philadelphia Flyers	82	37	26	19	231	196	93
Pittsburgh Penguins	82	38	30	14	242	225	90
New York Rangers	82	33	38	11	217	227	77
New York Islanders	82	24	48	10	194	244	58

The Great One Retires

Wayne Gretzky's last NHL game in Canada was on April 16, 1999, in a 2–2 tie with the Ottawa Senators, and his final game was a 2–1 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins which had Jaromir Jagr, the future Ranger captain, scoring the game winning goal on April 18, 1999 in the Madison Square Garden. The national anthems in that game were adjusted to accommodate Gretzky's departure. In place of "O Canada, we stand on guard for thee", Bryan Adams sang "We're going to miss you Wayne Gretzky". The Star-Spangled Banner, sung by John Amirante, was changed from "the land of the free" to "the land of Wayne Gretzky". He scored his final point in this game, assisting on the lone New York goal scored by Brian Leetch. Gretzky was named as the first, second, and third star of both games. Only Maurice Richard has had such an honour, when during the Stanley Cup Playoffs on March 23, 1944, he scored five dominating goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs. His Montreal Canadiens won 5–1.

At the time of his retirement, Gretzky was the second-to-last WHA player still active in professional hockey, Mark Messier being the last. Messier, himself a former Ranger, along with other representatives of the great Edmonton dynasty of the 1980s, attended the game. Gretzky's final game was considered a "national retirement party" in Canada, and Bryan Adams's rendition of "O Canada" was like a "lullaby." As the final seconds ticked away, the crowd at Madison Square Garden gave him a standing ovation, capping off "an entirely satisfying, weekend-long going-away party" in Canada, as there would be "No Regretzkys."

Gretzky told Scott Morrison that the final game of his career was his greatest day. He recounted:

“

My last game in New York was my greatest day in hockey...Everything you enjoy about the sport of hockey as a kid, driving to practice with mom [Phyllis] and dad [Walter], driving to the game with mom and dad, looking in the stands and seeing your mom and dad and your friends, that all came together in that last game in New York.

”

Game log

#	R	Date	Score	Opponent	Record
1	L	Oct 9, 1998	0–1	Philadelphia Flyers	0–1–0
2	L	Oct 10, 1998	1–7	@ Montreal Canadiens	0–2–0
3	L	Oct 12, 1998	2–4	St. Louis Blues	0–3–0
4	L	Oct 16, 1998	1–2	New Jersey Devils	0–4–0
5	T	Oct 17, 1998	3–3 OT	@ Pittsburgh Penguins	0–4–1
6	W	Oct 20, 1998	3–2	Edmonton Oilers	1–4–1
7	W	Oct 22, 1998	3–2	New York Islanders	2–4–1
8	T	Oct 24, 1998	2–2 OT	@ Philadelphia Flyers	2–4–2
9	T	Oct 27, 1998	0–0 OT	Buffalo Sabres	2–4–3
10	W	Oct 30, 1998	1–0	Carolina Hurricanes	3–4–3
11	L	Nov 3, 1998	1–3	@ New Jersey Devils	3–5–3
12	L	Nov 4, 1998	1–4	Montreal Canadiens	3–6–3
13	T	Nov 7, 1998	6–6 OT	@ Toronto Maple Leafs	3–6–4
14	W	Nov 10, 1998	10–2	@ Tampa Bay Lightning	4–6–4
15	L	Nov 11, 1998	1–4	@ Florida Panthers	4–7–4
16	T	Nov 13, 1998	3–3 OT	Boston Bruins	4–7–5
17	L	Nov 18, 1998	1–3	@ Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	4–8–5
18	W	Nov 19, 1998	5–1	@ Los Angeles Kings	5–8–5
19	T	Nov 21, 1998	2–2 OT	@ San Jose Sharks	5–8–6
20	L	Nov 25, 1998	2–4	@ Buffalo Sabres	5–9–6
21	T	Nov 27, 1998	2–2 OT	@ Pittsburgh Penguins	5–9–7
22	W	Nov 29, 1998	5–1	Nashville Predators	6–9–7
23	W	Dec 1, 1998	5–4 OT	Florida Panthers	7–9–7
24	W	Dec 2, 1998	3–2	@ New York Islanders	8–9–7
25	W	Dec 5, 1998	2–1	@ Ottawa Senators	9–9–7
26	W	Dec 7, 1998	6–2	Toronto Maple Leafs	10–9–7
27	L	Dec 9, 1998	1–2	Colorado Avalanche	10–10–7
28	L	Dec 11, 1998	0–2	@ Buffalo Sabres	10–11–7
29	W	Dec 14, 1998	5–2	Calgary Flames	11–11–7
30	L	Dec 16, 1998	3–6	@ New Jersey Devils	11–12–7
31	L	Dec 19, 1998	4–7	@ Toronto Maple Leafs	11–13–7
32	L	Dec 23, 1998	0–1	Carolina Hurricanes	11–14–7
33	W	Dec 26, 1998	6–3	@ Carolina Hurricanes	12–14–7
34	L	Dec 30, 1998	1–3	@ Phoenix Coyotes	12–15–7
35	W	Dec 31, 1998	6–3	@ Colorado Avalanche	13–15–7
36	W	Jan 2, 1999	1–0	@ St. Louis Blues	14–15–7
37	W	Jan 4, 1999	4–3	San Jose Sharks	15–15–7
38	L	Jan 6, 1999	2–5	New Jersey Devils	15–16–7
39	L	Jan 7, 1999	1–5	@ Washington Capitals	15–17–7
40	W	Jan 10, 1999	5–2	Tampa Bay Lightning	16–17–7
41	W	Jan 13, 1999	4–3 OT	New York Islanders	17–17–7
42	L	Jan 15, 1999	1–3	Chicago Blackhawks	17–18–7
43	L	Jan 16, 1999	0–3	@ Montreal Canadiens	17–19–7
44	L	Jan 19, 1999	1–2	Ottawa Senators	17–20–7
45	L	Jan 21, 1999	1–2	Florida Panthers	17–21–7
46	W	Jan 26, 1999	4–1	@ Washington Capitals	18–21–7
47	L	Jan 28, 1999	2–3 OT	@ Carolina Hurricanes	18–22–7
48	W	Jan 30, 1999	3–2	@ Detroit Red Wings	19–22–7
49	L	Feb 1, 1999	1–3	Washington Capitals	19–23–7
50	W	Feb 4, 1999	8–4	Vancouver Canucks	20–23–7
51	L	Feb 7, 1999	2–3	@ Boston Bruins	20–24–7
52	L	Feb 12, 1999	1–3	Carolina Hurricanes	20–25–7
53	L	Feb 14, 1999	2–4	Detroit Red Wings	20–26–7
54	W	Feb 15, 1999	7–4	@ Nashville Predators	21–26–7
55	L	Feb 17, 1999	3–6	Montreal Canadiens	21–27–7
56	W	Feb 19, 1999	6–1	Pittsburgh Penguins	22–27–7
57	W	Feb 21, 1999	2–1 OT	@ Edmonton Oilers	23–27–7
58	L	Feb 22, 1999	2–6	@ Calgary Flames	23–28–7
59	W	Feb 26, 1999	3–0	Phoenix Coyotes	24–28–7
60	W	Feb 28, 1999	6–5	Philadelphia Flyers	25–28–7
61	T	Mar 2, 1999	2–2 OT	Dallas Stars	25–28–8
62	W	Mar 4, 1999	4–2	@ Washington Capitals	26–28–8
63	W	Mar 7, 1999	3–1	@ Boston Bruins	27–28–8
64	W	Mar 8, 1999	3–2 OT	Toronto Maple Leafs	28–28–8
65	L	Mar 10, 1999	0–3	Ottawa Senators	28–29–8
66	L	Mar 12, 1999	4–5	Boston Bruins	28–30–8
67	W	Mar 14, 1999	3–2 OT	@ New York Islanders	29–30–8
68	T	Mar 15, 1999	1–1 OT	Washington Capitals	29–30–9
69	L	Mar 19, 1999	2–3 OT	Buffalo Sabres	29–31–9
70	T	Mar 21, 1999	2–2 OT	Pittsburgh Penguins	29–31–10
71	L	Mar 22, 1999	3–6	@ Tampa Bay Lightning	29–32–10
72	W	Mar 24, 1999	2–1	@ Florida Panthers	30–32–10
73	L	Mar 27, 1999	1–3	@ Philadelphia Flyers	30–33–10
74	W	Mar 29, 1999	3–1	New York Islanders	31–33–10
75	L	Apr 2, 1999	1–4	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	31–34–10
76	L	Apr 4, 1999	1–4	@ New Jersey Devils	31–35–10
77	W	Apr 5, 1999	5–1	@ Philadelphia Flyers	32–35–10
78	L	Apr 8, 1999	2–6	@ Chicago Blackhawks	32–36–10
79	L	Apr 9, 1999	1–3	@ Dallas Stars	32–37–10
80	W	Apr 12, 1999	2–1	Tampa Bay Lightning	33–37–10
81	T	Apr 15, 1999	2–2 OT	@ Ottawa Senators	33–37–11
82	L	Apr 18, 1999	1–2 OT	Pittsburgh Penguins	33–38–11

Player stats

Regular season
Scoring
Player Pos GP G A Pts PIM +/- PPG SHG GWG Gretzky, WayneWayne Gretzky C 70 9 53 62 14 -23 3 0 3 MacLean, JohnJohn MacLean RW 82 28 27 55 46 5 11 1 2 Leetch, BrianBrian Leetch D 82 13 42 55 42 -7 4 0 1 Graves, AdamAdam Graves LW 82 38 15 53 47 -12 14 2 7 Nedved, PetrPetr Nedved C 56 20 27 47 50 -6 9 1 3 Savard, MarcMarc Savard C 70 9 36 45 38 -7 4 0 1 Stevens, KevinKevin Stevens LW 81 23 20 43 64 -10 8 0 3 Sundstrom, NiklasNiklas Sundstrom RW 81 13 30 43 20 -2 1 2 3 Knuble, MikeMike Knuble RW 82 15 20 35 26 -7 3 0 1 Schneider, MathieuMathieu Schneider D 75 10 24 34 71 -19 5 0 2 Harvey, ToddTodd Harvey RW/C 37 11 17 28 72 -1 6 0 2 Malhotra, MannyManny Malhotra C 73 8 8 16 13 -2 1 0 2 Samuelsson, UlfUlf Samuelsson D 67 4 8 12 93 6 0 0 0 Fedyk, BrentBrent Fedyk LW 67 4 6 10 30 -11 0 1 0 Beukeboom, JeffJeff Beukeboom D 45 0 9 9 60 -2 0 0 0 Kovalev, AlexAlex Kovalev RW 14 3 4 7 12 -6 1 0 1 Fraser, ScottScott Fraser C 28 2 4 6 14 -12 1 0 0 Tamer, ChrisChris Tamer D 52 1 5 6 92 -12 0 0 1 Popovic, PeterPeter Popovic D 68 1 4 5 40 -12 0 0 0 Brennan, RichRich Brennan D 24 1 3 4 23 -4 0 0 0 Ndur, RumunRumun Ndur D 31 1 3 4 46 -2 0 0 0 Lacroix, EricEric Lacroix LW 30 2 1 3 4 -5 0 0 1 Pronger, SeanSean Pronger C 14 0 3 3 4 -3 0 0 0 Tikkanen, EsaEsa Tikkanen LW 32 0 3 3 38 -5 0 0 0 Mertzig, JanJan Mertzig D 23 0 2 2 8 -5 0 0 0 Karpovtsev, AlexanderAlexander Karpovtsev D 2 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 Armstrong, DerekDerek Armstrong C 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Cloutier, DanDan Cloutier G 22 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Dube, ChristianChristian Dube C 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Finley, JeffJeff Finley D 2 0 0 0 0 -1 0 0 0 Langdon, DarrenDarren Langdon LW 44 0 0 0 80 -3 0 0 0 Maneluk, MikeMike Maneluk LW 4 0 0 0 4 -1 0 0 0 Neckar, StanStan Neckar D 18 0 0 0 8 -1 0 0 0 Richter, MikeMike Richter G 68 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Smith, GeoffGeoff Smith D 4 0 0 0 2 -5 0 0 0 Stock, P.J.P.J. Stock C 5 0 0 0 6 -1 0 0 0 Witehall, JohanJohan Witehall LW 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 York, HarryHarry York C 5 0 0 0 4 -1 0 0 0
Goaltending
Player MIN GP W L T GA GAA SO SA SV SV% Richter, MikeMike Richter 3878 68 27 30 8 170 2.63 4 1898 1728 .910 Cloutier, DanDan Cloutier 1097 22 6 8 3 49 2.68 0 570 521 .914 Team: 4975 82 33 38 11 219 2.64 4 2468 2249 .911

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;

Awards and honors

• Wayne Gretzky, Lady Byng Trophy
• Wayne Gretzky, MVP of NHL All-Star Game

References

• Rangers on Hockey Database

New York Rangers
Team	Franchise • Players • Coaches • GMs • Seasons • Records • Draft Picks • History Madison Square Garden
Stanley Cups	1928, 1933, 1940, 1994
Affiliates	Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL), Maine Mariners (ECHL)