NHL team dog Ranger the Lab finds forever family

Ranger the Lab has graduated his training with the NHL’s New York Rangers, and he’s finding life post-schooling not quite how he planned it.

Ranger the Lab, the National Hockey League’s first official hockey dog, has graduated his training with the New York Rangers, but his life post-schooling didn’t turn out quite like he’d thought it would.

That happens to a lot of us, though, so it’s part of life, just as chronicling the impawtant moments are, like when he joined the team.

Though he was trained by BluePath to be a service dog for children with autism, Ranger will have a different role with his new family in North Carolina, as a companion dog for a teenager named Dan.

While he won’t be a service dog, lacking the proper temperament, he will provide his family with lots of love and companionship as a pet.

As his puppy raiser Saxon Eastman wrote on the BluePath blog, “Ranger is a super sweet, loving, intelligent, deliciously derpy meatball.”

“Ranger’s skilled companionship will immeasurably improve life for the whole family,” Eastman continued. “There is no doubt that it is with this family that Ranger will live his best and most purposeful life.”

During his year with the team during the 2018-19 season, New York CIty’s Original Six team scored 78 points as they went 32-36-14 in the regular season, finishing seventh in the Eastern Conference’s eight-team Metro Division.

Ranger’s journey led to many other teams across the NHL jumping on board the trend with service dogs of their own, with the crosstown New York Islanders getting Radar, the Ottawa Senators getting Rookie, the Stanley Cup champion St Louis Blues acquiring Barclay, and the San Jose Sharks drafting Finn.

(We chronicled that pleasing development here.)

In addition to all that, the Montreal Canadiens acquired Flambo and the Nashville Predators got Smash for morale purposes within the organizations, while the Washington Capitals hosted the adorable Caps Puppy Playoffs.

Fan dogs like Ovie the Bulldog and Landry Agnes cheered on the Caps and Preds, respectively, while Las Vegas doggos Bark-Andre Furry and Sir Winston Da Doodle are instructing their little brothers Deke and Sir Oliver how to be Golden Knights fans.

The NHL Fan Awards even had two categories devoted to puppers, Best Dog (best dog of a player) and Best Team Dog, which Barclay won thanks to the Blues’ strong playoff push.

For more Rangers news, follow Blue Line Station and Empire Writes Back, some of the FanSided Network’s main spots for keeping up with the NYC hockey scene.