bantering points: 4/18/24

here are today's news and links:

rangers news:

justin terranova shares the story of how the washington capitals emerged as the rangers' opening round playoff opponent following a wild and whacky tuesday in the nhl (ny post)

mollie walker lists five storylines to keep an eye on as the blueshirts and capitals prepare to square off to begin the postseason (ny post)

colin stephenson discusses how a playoff series against the capitals is something of full circle moment concerning new york's rebuild (newsday)

anthony rieber chatted with howie rose, a former play-by-play broadcaster for both the rangers and new york islanders, about how peter laviolette's first season with the rangers is reminiscent of his 2001-02 season as the islanders' head coach (newsday)

vincent mercogliano sat down with artemiy panarin ahead of the blueshirts' latest foray into the playoffs (lohud)

brian abate credits laviolette for making the long overdue decision to split up the defensive pairing of jacob trouba and k'andre miller (the hockey writers)

peter baugh po$e$ five que$tion$ to keep in mind regarding the ranger$ in the lead up to the playoff$ (the athletic)

around the nhl:

the minnesota wild agreed to a one year, $2.5 million contract extension with goaltender marc-andre fleury for what will be the final season of fleury's career (nbc sports)

the montreal canadiens exercised an option in head coach martin st. louis's contract to extend his deal through the 2026-27 campaign (tsn)

the game 1 start times for each of the four eastern conference playoff matchups have been announced (sportsnet)

tampa bay lightning forward nikita kucherov became the fifth player in league history to record 100 assists in a season, joining a club consisting of wayne gretzky, mario lemieux, bobby orr, and connor mcdavid after hitting the century mark during wednesday's 6-4 victory over the toronto maple leafs (espn)