Pregame Notes: Rangers vs. Blue Jackets 01.27.22
INDIVIDUAL CAREER STATISTICS VS. BLUE JACKETS
Chris Kreider - 30 GP, 15G-6A-21P - Kreider is the Rangers' all-time leader in goals against the Blue Jackets. He has points in nine of his last 12 games (12G-1A) against Columbus.
Mika Zibanejad - 17 GP, 4G-14A-18P - Zibanejad has 11 points (2G-9A) in his last 12 games against the Blue Jackets including a plus-3 rating. Zibanejad has points in five of his last seven games against Columbus (6A) dating back to Jan. 13, 2019.
Artemi Panarin - 9 GP, 7G-7A - 14P - Against his former team, Panarin has six points (3G-4A) in his last five games since becoming a Ranger. In total with Chicago and New York, Panarin has points seven of nine games against Columbus, including five games with multiple points (3 two-point games, 2 three-point games).
Goalies vs. CBJ
Alexandar Georgiev (3-1-1, 16 GA, .922 SV%, 3.07 GAA)
Igor Shesterkin (2-1-0, 1 SO, 5 GA, .948 SV%, 1.73 GAA)
RANGERS AND BLUE JACKETS CONNECTIONS
WILL TO WIN
The Rangers have won five of their last six games, nine of their last 12 games, earned at least one point in 11 of their last 15 games (10-4-1), have wins in 18 of their last 26 games, 22 of their last 31 games and points in 26 of their last 35 games (23-9-3). The Rangers have at least one point in 32 of their 43 games this season.
In the NHL, the Rangers rank tied for third in wins (28) and fourth in points (60).
With 60 points in 43 games, it marks the fourth-fewest contests needed in franchise history to hit the 60-point mark (39 GP in 1971-72, 40 GP in 1970-71 &42 GP in 2011-12).
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
New York has won two out its last three road games and three out of its last five games on the road. Since November 24, the Rangers have won nine of its last 14 road games.
Tonight, will be the Blueshirts' 26 road game of the season which will be the most in the NHL. The Rangers rank first in road wins (15) and points (32) while adding a 84.0 percent penalty kill, the fourth best road mark in the league.
From tonight until March 5, the Rangers will play only three road games.
SPREADING THE WEALTH
The Rangers and Colorado are the only teams in the NHL with four or more players with 40-plus points.
DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK
The Blueshirts have come from behind to win four of their last five games and have 14 comebacks on the season. On the year, New York has 11 wins when trailing first in a game, the second-most in the league behind St. Louis' 14.
KREIDING HIGH
Chris Kreider leads the NHL with a career-high 30 goals and became the fourth different player in franchise history to score 30 goals in 43 or fewer games in a season, joining Rod Gilbert (42 GP in 1971-72), Bill Cook (42 GP in 1930-31 &1926-27) and Don Murdoch (43 GP in 1976-77). He became the third player in Rangers history to be the NHL's first skater to reach the 30-goal mark (tied or outright), joining Lynn Patrick (1941-42) and Bill Cook (1926-27 &1930-31).
Kreider is currently riding a six-game goal streak (9G) since Jan. 13 and is the seventh different Ranger since 1991-92 to record a run of equal or greater length goal streak. With a goal tonight, Kreider would record the longest Ranger goal streak since Mike Gartner (7 GP) in 1991.
Kreider has a league-leading 15 goals on the power play and his latest was the 73rd of his career, passing Mark Messier for sole possession of eighth place on the Rangers' all-time power-play goal list. He became the first Rangers player with 15-plus power-play goals through his first 30 tallies of a season since Petr Prucha in 2005-06 (16).
THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Adam Fox has the second most (tied) assists in the NHL with 39 and leads all defensemen in assists. Fox's 46 points (7G-39A) are also the most among NHL defensemen.
Fox has recorded points in six-straight games (2G-8A) and has points in eight of his last 10 games (2G-11A). In his last 11 games, Fox has 13 assists. It is the third-longest point streak of his career:
12 GP - March 17-April 8, 2021
7 GP - Nov. 21-Dec. 7, 2021
6 GP - Jan. 13-Present
Fox has 13 multi-point games this year, the most among defensemen.
PANARIN WITH THE POINTS
Artemi Panarin is riding a five-game point streak (1G-8A), four of those five have been multi-point games. Panarin has points in seven of his last nine games (2G-10A) and 22 points (5G-17A) in his last 16 games. Panarin has 14 multi-point games this season, tied for the sixth most in the league and 61 since 2019-20, the third most in the NHL:
Connor McDavid - 79
Leon Draisaitl - 74
Artemi Panarin - 61
Nathan MacKinnon - 60
MIKA MAGIC
Mika Zibanejad has points in eight of his last nine games (4G-7A), and is coming off his second longest point streak of his career (8 GP - Jan. 6-22).
Zibanejad has points in nine of his last 11 games (7G-7A) and in his last 15 games, he has 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points. Since Dec. 15, Zibanejad's 21 points are tied for the fourth-most points in the league.
SHESTERKIN BY THE NUMBERS
Igor Shesterkin reached the 20-win mark with his seventh consecutive win on Monday night. He required the fewest games by a Rangers goaltender to reach the 20-win mark in a season, besting the previous mark set by Gilles Villemure (28 GP in 1971-72). In his last 14 starts, Shesterkin has allowed two or fewer goals in 10 of them.
Among NHL goaltenders with a minimum of 20 starts, Shesterkin ranks among the best in several categories:
Save % (.937) - 1st
GAA (2.07) - 2nd
Shutouts (3) - T-4th
Wins (20) - T-6th
HERE'S THE SITUATION
Situationally, this season the Rangers are:
POWER PLAY
PENALTY KILL
- New York is 106-for-126 (84.1%) on the penalty kill this season, fifth-best in the NHL.
- The Rangers have killed off 34 of their last 40 penalties.
- The Blueshirts have been perfect on the PK in eight of their last 13 games, 12 of their last 18 games and 18 of their last 25 games.
- The Rangers are 22-3-2 in games this season where they have not allowed a power play goal.
