RANGERS RUNDOWN
- The New York Rangers visit Carolina to finish off the regular season series against the Hurricanes (7:00 PM ET - TV: MSGSN - Radio: ESPN 1050 AM). After tonight, the Blueshirts will have 10 more games in the regular season.
- New York will play five of its next six games on the road. The Rangers have points in three-straight road games (2-0-1) and 14 of their last 17 contests (9-3-5). In the NHL, the Blueshirts' .676 road point percentage ranks sixth, 3.32 GF/GP ranks eighth, and 2.59 GA/GP is third in the league.
- New York has points in seven of their last eight games (6-1-1) and wins in four of their last five.
- The Rangers' forward line of Jimmy Vesey, Tyler Motte and Barclay Goodrow have scored four goals in 12 games together. In their last five games, the trio have combined to record seven points (Motte - 3, Vesey - 2, Goodrow - 2).
- Since December 5, New York is 30-10-5 for 65 points. In the NHL in that span, the Rangers rank third in points, wins, points percentage (.722), and power play percentage (24.8), while also ranking fourth in goals per game (3.58).
- The Blueshirts have scored 15 goals over their last three games and four or more goals in four of their last five contests. New York has scored six goals in a game 13 times this season and five or more goals in a game 21 times this season. Both rank third in the NHL. When scoring four or more goals, New York is 28-0-0 and one of two teams in the NHL (VGK) to have a perfect such record.
- The Blueshirts have won eight of their last 12 regular season games against the Hurricanes and have wins in nine out of their last 14 games against them.
- It is the first time since Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky in 1996-97 that two Rangers players (Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad) have had 77-plus points within the team's first 70 games of a season.
- With Vincent Trocheck's next goal, he would join Kreider, Zibanejad, Chytil and Panarin to hit the 20-goal mark this season. The last season to feature five different 20-goal scorers for the Ranger was 2015-16 (Derick Brassard, Mats Zuccarello, J.T. Miller, Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider).
- The Rangers defensemen group has compiled 174 points, the third most in the NHL.
Pregame Notes: Rangers at Hurricanes - 03.23.23
RANGERS AND HURRICANES CONNECTIONS
MIKA MARCH
Mika Zibanejad was named the First Star of the Week in the NHL after recording multi-point games in a career-long four straight games. Zibanejad has nine points in his last five games (5G-4A), 17 points in his last 13 (7G-10A) and 28 points in his last 22 games (15G-13A)
Zibanejad has thrived in the month of March over his career, totaling 127 points (62G-65A) in 151 games played.
Among NHL forwards, Zibanejad is one of four that has a plus-23 rating or better and 77-plus points this year (M. Tkachuck, Pastrnak, Robertson).
Zibanejad has tallied 19 of his goals on the power play, a new career-high for him and the third most in the NHL. With one more power play goal, the Rangers will become the first team since the 1992-93 & 1993-94 Boston Bruins to have a different player score 20+ power-play goals in back-to-back seasons as Kreider had 20+ last year.
PANARIN'S POINTS
Artemi Panarin has points in four of his last five games (3G-4A) and nine of his last 12 games (5G-10A), including four multi-point efforts. Panarin has reached the 80-point plateau for the fifth time in his career.
In the NHL this season, Panarin's 14 multi-assist games rank tied for ninth and since 2019-20, Panarin's 95 multi-point games are the fifth most in the NHL.
KREIDING TO MAKE HISTORY
Chris Kreider has five goals in his last six games and 32 goals on the season, making him just the third Rangers skater in the past 25 years to post consecutive 30-goal campaigns, joining Mika Zibanejad (2 from 2018-19 - 2019-20) and Jaromir Jagr (2 from 2005-06 - 2006-07).
Kreider has three game-winning goals this season and 37 game-winning goals in his career, tied with Brian Leetch for the sixth most in franchise history.
Kreider has points in eight of his last 12 games (8G-2A).
ADAM'S APPLES
Adam Fox has assists in five-straight games, seven in his last eight games and 13 in his last 17 contests. He has 54 assists on the season, tied for the third most among NHL defenseman.
Fox is the seventh defenseman in NHL history and first in franchise history to record multiple 50-assist seasons in the first four years of a career. Fox is the second defenseman in Rangers history with consecutive 50-assist seasons, joining Brian Leetch (1990-91-1991-92 & 1995-96-1996-97) and overall he is now the ninth different Rangers player to record 50+ assists in consecutive seasons.
When he records multiple points, the Rangers are 13-0-0.
BLUESHIRT BULLETS
- Among NHL players with 15 minutes or less per game, Filip Chytil has the second most goals (20) and is tied for the most points (39). He scored his 20th goal of the season on Sunday and became the seventh Rangers player in the past 20 years to record a 20-goal season at age 23 or younger. He joins Pavel Buchnevich (21 in 2018-19), J.T. Miller (22 in 2015-16), Chris Kreider (21 in 2014-15), Derek Stepan (21 in 2010-11), Brandon Dubinsky (20 in 2009-10) and Petr Prucha (30 in 2005 06).
- K'Andre Miller has established career-highs in goals (8), assists (30) and points (38) this season. Miller has six points (2G- 4A) in his last three games and eight points in his last seven games.
- Vincent Trocheck has points in five-straight (8A) and has points in eight of his last 12 games (2G-11A). His 38 assists this season are the second most in his career (44 - 2017-18 with FLA). He has six assists in his last five games and has multi- point games in two of his last four contests.
- Igor Shesterkin has 32 wins on the year, the second most in the NHL and has wins in five of his last six games. With 94 career wins in 150 career games, Shesterkin became the seventh goaltender in NHL history with 94-plus victories through his first 150 NHL games (Bill Durnan, Michel Larocque, Frank Brimsek, Tiny Thompson, Chris Osgood, Bob Froese).
- Patrick Kane has 1,232 points in his NHL career, tied with Phil Housley for second place on the League's all-time list among U.S.-born players. In his last eight games, Kane has seven points (3G-4A).
- Jacob Trouba has points in seven of his last 10 games (4G-6A) and multi-point games in two of three games. He ranks second in the NHL with 178 blocked shots. - Vladimir Tarasenko has points in three of his last five games (1G-3A) and nine points in his last 11 games (3G-6A).
- Jaroslav Halak has points (8-2-2) in 10 of his last 12 starts and posted his first shutout with the Blueshirts on Mar. 19 against Nashville.
- The Rangers own a 65-13-4 record when Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, and Chris Kreider all three record a point.
SPECIAL TEAMS
- On the penalty kill, New York has been perfect in nine of its last 10 games.
- The Rangers have scored a power play goal in six of their last nine games (7G), nine of their last 13 games (10G) and 11 of their last 17 contests (13G).
- New York's 23.0 power play percentage ranks ninth in the NHL.
- Since the trade deadline on March 3, the Blueshirts' 91.3 PK percentage ranks first in the NHL while their 25.9 power play percentage ranks eighth in the NHL.
