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Rangers’ youth movement isn’t working out how they hoped

Regarding the Rangers, who, pending Sunday’s results, have the best record in the NHL (11-3, .786) since Oct. 31, but remain on the outside looking in at the playoffs: 1. General manager Jeff Gorton never expected Lias Andersson to be in Sweden and Tony DeAngelo to be in Hartford at this juncture of the season, […]

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Rangers hanging onto Mika Zibanejad’s positive injury news

Measuring progress in recovering from a concussion is an inexact science where one step forward can immediately be followed by two steps back. But Mika Zibanejad does seem to be on the right track. The Blueshirts’ first-line center, sidelined for the last two games with the injury that was triggered by a hit he sustained […]

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Rangers catch lucky breaks in hard-fought win over Penguins

PITTSBURGH — This was a single-game example of that karmic tug-of-war hockey teams speak about, that ambiguous idea of the difference between the results that are deserved and those delivered. The Rangers put that old cliché into motion and worked for their bounces, getting a couple very fortunate breaks while managing to sneak out of […]

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Islanders win shootout after Panthers goalie exits with injury

SUNRISE, Fla. — Mathew Barzal scored the winning goal in a shootout to lift the Islanders over Florida 5-4 on Monday night after Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo was injured in the second period. Anders Lee scored his 100th career goal. John Tavares, Brock Nelson and Thomas Hickey also scored in regulation for the Islanders. Jaroslav […]

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Henrik Lundqvist too sick to make start

PITTSBURGH — The holiday sickness hit the Rangers’ crease. Henrik Lundqvist was too ill to make his planned 15th start in a row, instead remaining at the team hotel while Ondrej Pavelec led the Rangers to a 4-3 victory over the Penguins on Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena. After practicing on Monday in New […]

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Islanders doomed by 4-minute stretch in loss to Lightning

TAMPA, Fla.— When the Tampa Bay Lightning needed to regain the momentum, Yanni Gourde took over. Gourde scored two of Tampa Bay’s three goals late in the second period and the Lightning beat the Islanders 6-2 on Tuesday night. After the Islanders dominated the first 16 minutes of the second, Gourde had a power-play rebound […]

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Islanders rally falls short in overtime loss to Penguins

PITTSBURGH — The Islanders made a late rally, but it wasn’t enough. Matt Hunwick scored 1:29 into overtime, lifting the Penguins over the Islanders 4-3 on Thursday night. “I saw one of their guys changing, so it was a chance to create a 3-on-2,” the defenseman said after his first NHL overtime goal. “You hope […]

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Necessity forcing Vigneault to coach differently than he wants

The Rangers are being coached, and have been for a while, as if every game were a playoff game. After an atrocious start to the season, it’s hard to dispute the necessity of that mentality as purveyed by Alain Vigneault. But it’s equally as hard to think that such urgency is sustainable, being that it’s […]

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Lundqvist works out, feels ‘pretty close to back to normal’

WASHINGTON — There was quite a bit of progress in the health of Henrik Lundqvist over the past few days, and the goaltender seems ready to play for the Rangers in Friday night’s match against the Capitals. Lundqvist fell ill over the weekend and was unable to make his scheduled 15th straight start in what […]

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Seattle team puts NHL in danger of falling into sports’ greed trap

The reason there is hesitation when hearing the NHL has agreed to allow Seattle to fill out an application for expansion is that unmitigated greed can undo something great. And greed is the first sentiment that comes to mind when commissioner Gary Bettman said Thursday that the Board of Governors is asking Seattle for a […]

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