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The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in Manhattan, New York. They are members of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the oldest teams in the NHL, having joined in 1926 as an expansion franchise, and are part of the group of teams referred to as the Original Six. The Rangers were the first NHL franchise in the United States to win the Stanley Cup, which they have done four times (most recently in 1994). The team is commonly referred to by its famous nickname, "The Broadway Blueshirts", or more commonly in New York media, as simply the "Blueshirts".
There have been thirty-four head coaches for the Rangers, the first one being Lester Patrick, and the current one being Alain Vigneault. Muzz Patrick, Alfred Pike, Ron Smith, and Colin Campbell are the only coaches who spent their entire careers with the Rangers and were not elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lynn Patrick, Emile Francis, Craig Patrick, Herb Brooks, Roger Neilson, and Glen Sather have been inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lester Patrick, Frank Boucher, Neil Colville, Bill Cook, Phil Esposito, Doug Harvey, and Bryan Trottier have all coached the Rangers for their entire coaching careers and have been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Phil Esposito, who coached two games of the 1988–89 season and didn't win a game, holds the worst winning record. The Rangers, who made it to the playoffs that year, lost all four games in the first round. Mike Keenan, the twenty-fifth coach of the Rangers, holds the best winning percentage of .667. In the 1993–94 season, he led the Rangers to a Stanley Cup championship. Both Lester Patrick and Emile Francis have the most playoff games coached, 65, and most playoff wins, 32.