7 double-up weekends at Arena for Rangers

Press & Sun Bulletin

August 23, 1990

By Charlie Jaworski

Executive Sports Editor

The new hockey team coming to town will play a schedule that has few new twists for Binghamton hockey fans.

Binghamton Rangers managing partner Tom Mitchell is pleased with the team's glut of weekend games for its inaugural seaon, but has reservations about a few of the dates the American Hockey League has decided upon.

For sure the only super day on the AHL schedule, released is Jan. 27, the date of the National Football League's Super Bowl at Tampa, Fla.

That afternoon, the Rangers will play hockey at Rochester in a 2:05 start. It will be the first time a Binghamton team has played hockey on Super Bowl Sunday since 1976.

Other twists:
-Traditionally, the day after Christmas has been a home game, but the Rangers will play at Adirondrack on Dec. 26. The Rangers return home the following night to play the same Red Wings.

-The Rangers will play a rare Election Day game on Nov. 6. The elections are in the U.S., but the hockey game is in Canada at Newmarket, Ontario.

-Mitchell fears gate appeal won't be high for two midweek nights on which Binghamton hasn't been scheduled in the recent past: Halloween (a Wednesday), Oct 31 against Maine, and Martin Luther King Day (a Monday), Jan. 21, against Utica. School is in session the dat after both games, and going up against Halloween festivities isn't very attractive, Mitchell said.

"We have a few more weeknight games this year due to the fact that the county didn't let us submit as many weekend dates as before," he said.

The reason for that is conflicting events scheduled for the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

"When we added an additional team, we complicated the schedule because we added more Friday and Saturday dates (for requests)," AHL president Jack Butterfield said.

The AHL will have 15 teams for the 1990-91 season, with the New York Islanders minor-league affiliate moving into a new city, Troy, as the Capital District Islanders.

Most of the Rangers' 40 game home dates are on the weekend; 15 on Friday, 12 on Saturday and six on Sunday. Traditional games on Thanksgiving night and New Years Eve are intact.

There are seven back to back "double-headers"; games on Friday and Saturday nights at the Arena.

The first is the opening weekend of the season; Oct 5, as host to Hershey Bears, and Oct. 6 against the Captital District Islanders. The Bears are Rnagers coach John Paddock's old team. The Islanders' farm club, then playing out of Springfield, Mass, won the Calder Cup title last season.

The Rangers' 80 game schedule ends March 31 at home against Baltimore.

One noteworthy day on the schedule is Sunday, Dec. 2., the first visit by the Springfield Indians. Springfield is stocked by the Hartford Whalers, whose 10-year affiliation with Binghamton ended after last season. The Binghamton Whalers compiled the worst record in AHL history last season; 11 wins in 80 games.