Bantering Points: 1/6/17

While the Rangers didn't play last night, the NHL landscape around them did. With their next game scheduled for tomorrow night in Columbus, the team would have been in a position to allow the Blue Jackets to win an league record 18th straight game. However, Columbus lost against the Washington Capitals last night, so the pressure is off of New York. Here are today's news and links:

Rangers News:

• Justin Tasch discusses how the Rangers have not let sub-par efforts in individual games become trends (NY Daily News)
• Steve Zipay points out that despite Columbus finally losing a game, New York still needs a winning streak of their own to catch up to their division rivals (Newsday)
• Jess Rubenstein offers an update on some of the team's prospects, including Ty Ronning, Sergei Zoborovskiy, and Sean Day (Blueshirt Bulletin)
• John Williams and Brandon Cohen looked back on the Kevin Klein trade, and each made an argument in favor of or against the move (Blue Line Station)
• Timothy Haggerty reminisced on some of the Rangers' worst first round picks since Glen Sather joined the franchise (Blue Line Station)
• Dave Shapiro relays word from Darren Dreger that New York is "actively" looking to acquire a top four defenseman (Blue Seat Blogs)
• Joe McDonald writes the the Rangers are a difficult team to figure out through the first half of the season (ESPN)
• He played in sixteen games for New York after coming over from Columbus, and was a teammate of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews last season. Yesterday's player in the picture was.....Dan Fritsche (Wikipedia)/

Around the NHL:

• Mike Halford reports that Vancouver Canucks defenseman Jordan Subban, New York Islanders defenseman Devon Toews, and New York Rangers forward Nicklas Jensen were three of the forty-eight players named AHL All-Stars (NBC Sports)
• Jared Clinton listed five memorable moments from the Canada-USA rivalry before last night's World Junior Championship gold medal game (The Hockey News)
• Greg Wyshynski notes that the Columbus Blue Jackets sixteen game winning streak came to a crashing halt last night, as they lost 5-0 to the Washington Capitals (Puck Daddy)
• Jared Brooks recaps last night's gold medal game between USA and Canada, with the Americans taking home the gold in a thrilling 5-4 shootout victory (Habs Eyes On The Prize)/