Bantering Points: 9/23/17

For the first time in four and half months, the Rangers lost a hockey game last night, as they fell to the New York Islanders by a margin of 2-1. They'll look to right the ship as they take on the New Jersey Devils tonight. Here are today's news and links:

Rangers News:

• Highlights: NYI 2, NYR 1 (5:19 video via Official Team Site)
• Brett Cyrgalis discusses how Matt Puempel is looking to play a more physical game now that he's fully recovered from his concussions (NY Post)
• Steve Zipay dives into Alexei Bereglazov and his chances of making New York's roster (Newsday)
• Justin Tasch relays word from Alain Vigneault that both Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil have a chance at playing on opening night (NY Daily News)
• 2017-2018 Rangers Season Preview (The Hockey News)
• Justin Rutherford sorts out the Rangers' surplus of options to anchor the team's 3rd defensive pairing (Blue Seat Blogs)
• Dave Shapiro reports that Sean Day, Sergey Zborovskiy, and Dawson Leedahl were cut from New York's training camp. Adam Chapie was also placed on waivers (Blue Seat Blogs)
• Lou Venditti highlights five players who impressed him during the first two pre-season contests (Blue Line Station)
• Brandon Sapienza ponders where will the team's offense come from after selling Derek Stepan for quarters on the dollar (Blue Line Station)
• Neal Purcell notes that former fan favorite Sean Avery took former Rangers' coach John Tortorella to task for various actions in his new book, scheduled for release next month (Elite Sports NY)
• Michael Rappaport reminisces on the 1971-72 Rangers team that came two wins away from ending the franchise's then-32 year drought (The Hockey Writers)
• Postgame Notes: Filip Chytil and Pavel Buchnevich both recorded assists last night, so that's cool I guess (Official Team Site)
• He came to training camp last season, and was universally labeled as the worst player to pull on a Rangers sweater since Donald Brashear. Yesterday's player in the picture was.....Maxim Lapierre (Wikipedia)/

Around the NHL:

• Cam Tucker saw that the Vegas Golden Knights have opted to send their top draft picks back to juniors, as Cody Glass (6th Overall) and Nick Suzuki (13th) to the Portland Winterhawks and Owen Sound Attack respectively (NBC Sports)
• In an ironic twist of fate, the NHL has entered discussions with Shane Doan about a role in the hockey operations department (TSN)
• Sonny Sachdeva names five players returning from injury that could change the landscape of the NHL in 17-18 (Sportsnet)
• Matt Larkin goes around the Metropolitan Division and highlights some key positional battles (The Hockey News)
• Shayna Goldman breaks down how Dale Tallon's decision to trade Jason Demers was just another step in the process of sinking the Florida Panthers organization (FanRag)/

Do you know who the former Ranger in the picture is?