Here are today’s news and links:

Rangers News:

• Highlights: OTT 6, NYR 2 (5:03 video via NHL.com)
• Game Recap: A solid half period of hockey wasn’t enough for the Blueshirts, as they spent the final two and a half periods getting laughed out of their own building by the Senators (CBS)
• Larry Brooks writes that if they continue to lean on their youth, the Rangers can continue making steady defensive improvements (NY Post)
• Brett Cyrgalis details how Adam Fox has seamlessly transitioned from Harvard to Broadway (NY Post)
• Colin Stephenson expands upon how dreadful New York looked in the Vladislav Namestnikov Revenge Game (Newsday)
• Steve Paulus discusses the Brendan Smith experiment, as well as some other instances of the team experimenting with super utility players (Blue Line Station)
• Andrew Steele-Davis examines the pros and cons of making a move for Edmonton Oilers prospect Jesse Puljujarvi (Blue Line Station)
• Dominick Renna doesn’t think that David Quinn’s squad has tuned him out quite yet (Elite Sports NY)
• Tom Castro points to the Marc Staal and Brady Skjei contracts as major roadblocks to a successful execution of the rebuild (The Hockey Writers)
• Media Availability: Chris Kreider and Alexandar Georgiev (0:38) (Official Team Site)/

Around the NHL:

• Adam Gretz examines how the Edmonton Oilers and Arizona Coyotes have followed different paths in their rise back to competitiveness (NBC Sports)
• Sonny Sachdeva takes a look at why the slapshot is on its way to extinction in hockey (Sportsnet)
• Elias Pettersson,(C, VAN) Jakub Vrana,(RW, WSH) and Mike Smith (G, EDM) have been named the league’s three stars of the week (TSN)
• Ryan Kennedy ponders if the NHL is nearing a place where the league’s first openly gay player would be welcomed and accepted (The Hockey News)/