How World War II Impacted The Rangers

You had to have nerves of steel to root for the Blueshirts during World War II. It's not that the Rangers were bad – or even worse – THEY WERE WORSE THAN WORSE.

Not that it was the New Yorkers' fault. It was a fact of life that they lost more good players via armed forces enlistments than any of the other five NHL teams.

Players such as goalie Sugar Jim Henry, defensemen Art Coulter and Muzz Patrick had starred on the 1940 Stanley Cup winning team.

One of the best offensive units of the era – The Bread Line of Alex Shibicky with Neil and Mac Colville – turned in their blue shirts for khaki.

Coached by Frank Boucher, the Rangers finished the 1942-43 season with only 11 wins out of a 50-game schedule. "We were 20 points out of a playoff berth," Boucher wrote in his autobiography, When The Rangers Were Young. "Unbelievably we were even worse the next year."

Over the 1943-44 campaign, the Rangers won only six games and had an average of 6.2 goals scored against them per game and used 32 different players in search of wins.

But here's the kicker. Boucher, who had not been an active center since the 1937-38 season, was so desperate for players, he decided to put on the skates again at age 42.

"I did my best," Boucher recalled, "and played fifteen games. I got four goals and ten assists in that brief period. At that I outscored NINETEEN other players we tried that season."

Boucher returned to coaching and was supposed to be behind the bench for a January 1944 game at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. But just before Frank was due to entrain for The Motor City, he was informed that his brother Carroll had died.

Lester Patrick, then the club's president and manager, told Boucher to take a leave and that Patrick would coach against the Red Wings. (Lester thought that he could do a better job than Frank.)

It was that night when Lester learned just how very, very, very bad his team was. FINAL SCORE; RED WINGS 15, RANGERS 0!