Here are today’s news and links:

Rangers News:

• Colin Stephenson notes that Neal Pionk’s first time as a healthy scratch could be a motivating point moving forward (Newsday)
• Brett Cyrgalis discusses how David Quinn  finally reached his breaking point with Neal Pionk’s poor play as of late (NY Post)
• Cyrgalis also believes that tonight’s start against the Boston Bruins could mean the start of more regular game reps for Alexandar Georgiev (NY Post)
• Dave Shapiro argues that New York’s rebuild means they’ll need to be more reliant on their offensive depth for scoring (Blue Seat Blogs)
• Nicholas Zararis writes that even with a recent uptick in play, Mats Zuccarello’s fate with the team is all but sealed (Blue Line Station)
• Zararis also gave his State of the Union-equivalent regarding the Rangers (Blue Line Station)
• Steve Paulus ponders why the Blueshirts’ top line seems to be the only source of offense as of late (Blue Line Station)/

Around the NHL:

• Katya Knappe relays word that the Toronto Maple Leafs agreed to a five year, $58.17 million contract with forward Auston Matthews (Pension Plan Puppets)
• Washington Capitals’ forward Alexander Ovechkin became the all-time leading scorer among Russians after recording an assist on T.J. Oshie’s ice-breaking goal against the Vancouver Canucks last night (TSN)
• Elliotte Friedman authored another edition of 31 Thoughts (Sportsnet)
• James O’Brien relays word that in recognition of Patrice Bergeron’s 1,000th NHL game, the Boston Bruins had the 6x Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots drop a ceremonial puck, led by Super Bowl LIII MVP Julian Edelman (NBC Sports)/