After the New York Rangers missed the NHL playoffs for the third consecutive season in '99-2000, big changes were in the air at Madison Square Garden. Glen Sather was hired as team president/general manager, and he named Ron Low coach and brought back Mark Messier, the captain of the Rangers' 1995 Stanley Cup championship team. In "Nightmare on 33rd Street: A Long Season with the New York Rangers," veteran hockey beat writer Rick Carpiniello takes a day-by-day, game-by-game journey with a team in transition. From the preseason to the season's bitter end and the important offseason dealings, Carpiniello brings hockey fans inside the locker rooms and boardrooms and onto the ice with a team struggling to regain its winning form. Sather, the architect of championship clubs in Edmonton, discovers that running a team in the big city is a different story. In trying to find the right mix of talent, players are traded or sent to the minors while others are brought to the big club in their places. Constant trade rumors and turmoil sweep through the locker room. Key Ranger players, including goalie Mike Richter, fall victim to injury.

Coach Low juggles the everchanging roster, while captain Messier, now 40 years old, attempts to rally the troops. Nightmare on 33rd Street is an inside look at the tumultuous New York Rangers' 2000-01 season by a seasoned observer of the hockey scene.