Bantering Points: 3/10/17

The Rangers continued their struggles in Raleigh last night, as the team blew a 3-2 lead entering the 3rd Period and fell to the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 4-3. Despite the power play connecting for three goals on the night, New York wasn't able to generate much even strength offense thanks to a brilliant performance from Cam Ward. Here are today's news and links:

Rangers News:

• Highlights: CAR 4, NYR 3 (4:30 Video via NHL.com)
• Game Recap: Sebastian Aho tallies two third period goals to power the Hurricanes through New York (CBS)
• Larry Brooks chatted with Derek Stepan about the forward's 22 game (and counting) goal scoring drought an how it's affected his play (NY Post)
• Donavan Burns dives into each of the Rangers' possible playoff scenarios as the season winds down (The Hockey Writers)
• Scott Charles offers his thoughts on New York's 4-3 defeat at the PNC Center (Blueshirt Bulletin)
• Dave Shapiro wonders what has happened to Derek Stepan that's causing his prolonged goal drought (Blue Seat Blogs)
• Greg Slotnick questions if Alain Vigneault is capable of bringing a Stanley Cup back to New York (Elite Sports NY)
• Brandon Cohen examines Oscar Lindberg as a candidate for the Vegas Golden Knights to select in the expansion draft (Blue Line Station)
• Dan Carrozzi breaks down how the dynamic duo of Marc Staal and Nick Holden have performed this season (Blue Line Station)
• Postgame Notes: In an utterly shocking development, a player scored the first goal of his NHL career against the Rangers. This time, it was Hurricanes forward Valentin Zykov (Official Team Site)
• Postgame Interviews: Alain Vigneault,(1:41) Derek Stepan,(1:35) Antti Raanta,(1:44) and Ryan McDonagh (1:25) (Official Team Site)
• He never appeared in a regular season game for the Rangers, but did suit up for the during the 2015-16 pre-season before leaving camp without a contract. Yesterday's player in the picture was.....Brett Bellemore (Wikipedia)/

Around the NHL:

• Rick Westhead reports that the judge on trial for the NHL's concussion lawsuit has said he would like to go to trial sometime this calendar year (TSN)
• Elliotte Friedman authors another edition of 30 Thoughts (Sportsnet)
• Nick Ashbourne relays Vancouver Canucks' President of Hockey Operations Trevor Linden's response to accusations of a drinking culture withing the organization (Puck Daddy)
• Ken Campbell sees Pittsburgh Penguins forward Tom Sestito as a microcosm of hockey's culture of violence, with no end in sight (The Hockey News)/