After opening the season with a seven-game road trip that spanned three countries, the New York Rangers are finally back home.

The local hockey team held its first practice at the renovated Madison Square Garden Wednesday, to prepare to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night.

The Garden will be closed again next summer for the second phase of the project.

The players said they were impressed with what they saw.

"It's great. You can see the change right away," said Rangers Captain Ryan Callahan. "Coming into the arena a little bit lost, not knowing where to go, but the room's great. The arena looks great. The seating, you know, everything has a lot more room. So we're excited to be back."

"Huge tubs, hot tubs, we have everything. Like I said before, we're pretty spoiled to be in here," said Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto. "It feels like we're at the Ritz-Carlton or something right now."

The Rangers concluded their trip with a 2-1 win in Winnipeg on Monday, to improve their record to 3-2-2.