Bantering Points: 2/11/17

The Colorado Avalanche are in town tonight, as the Rangers will welcome Jarome Iginla and the rest of his teammates into Madison Square Garden. These two teams clashed to conclude the 2016 calendar year, with New York running the Avalanche out of their own building by a score of 6-2. Now, the Rangers will look to defend their home ice, and push their winning streak to five games against one of the NHL's cellar dwellers. Here are today's news and links:

Rangers News:

• Brett Cyrgalis hears that after testing his ankle before practice yesterday, Dan Girardi is unlikely to suit up in tonight's game (NY Post)
• Steve Zipay notes that Henrik Lundqvist will be looking to record his 400th NHL win during the action tonight (Newsday)
• Game Preview: If Lundqvist leads New York to victory against Colorado, he will become only the 12th goalie in league history with 400+ wins (CBS)
• Anthony Scultore believes that protecting Michael Grabner in the upcoming expansion draft has become an easy decision for the Rangers (Full Tilt NYR)
• Justin Starr lists the top five defenseman who have played for New York during Henrik Lundqvist's time on Broadway (Blue Line Station)
• Karly Redpath discusses how the Alain Vigneault would be wise to keep the line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Mats Zuccarello together (Blue Line Station)
• Post Practice Interviews: Antti Raanta,(2:06) Alain Vigneault,(7:28) Henrik Lundqvist,(5:45) and Ryan McDonagh (1:51) (Official Team Site)
• He appeared in 51 games for New York during the John Tortorella era, and has gone down with the likes of Michal Roszival, Matt Gilroy, and Raphael Diaz in Rangers' lore. Yesterday's player in the picture was.....Wojtek Wolski (Wikipedia)/

Around the NHL:

• John Gallagher and Bill McGraw report that Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch passed away yesterday at the age of 87. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Ilitch family (Detroit Free Press)
• David Singh offers his thoughts on some of the swirling trade rumors, including the ones surrounding William Nylander, Jaroslav Halak, and more (Sportsnet)
• Frank Seravalli ponders if any player will ever break former Colorado Avalanche legend Ray Bourque's record of 360 consecutive games with a shot on goal (TSN)
• Minnesota Wild captain Mikko Koivu "writes" has gone from a young Finnish hockey player to a franchise icon in the state of hockey (The Players Tribune)
• Dom Luszczyszyn releases his data driven playoff chances model (The Hockey News)
• Sean Tierney takes a look at whether or not the Boston Bruins were "gaming" shot attempts under former head coach Claude Julien (Hockey Graphs)/