Bantering Points: 1/5/25

Here are today's news and links:

Rangers News:

Highlights: WSH 7, NYR 4 (4:57 video via NHL.com)

Game Recap: The Blueshirts went down to the nation's capital and brought their usually brand of defensively sloppy, low effort hockey to the ice, and the Capitals made them pay for it to the tune of a seven goal outburst (CBS)

Christian Arnold sees a concerted effort to get more pucks on net out of Mika Zibanejad as a new approach that has led to goals in consecutive games for New York's floundering star center (NY Post)

Mollie Walker points to the horrid special teams showing, one that featured an 0/4 power play performance and conceding two goals on the penalty kill, as the driving force behind New York's defeat against Washington (NY Post)

Remy Mastey sees the Rangers' loss to the Capitals as the latest in this spiral that now stands at 5-16-0 since the middle of November (The Hockey News)

Mark Messier offered his thoughts on what's wrong with the Blueshirts and what can be done to get things back on track (NHL Trade Talk)

Around the NHL:

San Jose Sharks' defenseman Cody Ceci scored a game-winning goal with 24 seconds remaining to lead his team to a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils, who fell in regulation for a fourth consecutive game (Sportsnet)

Greg Wyshynski reminisces on all of the Winter Classic games to see where the latest edition between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues ranks (ESPN)

Finland knocked off Sweden with a 4-3 overtime victory in the semifinals of the World Junior Championships, setting up a medal round of USA vs Finland for gold and Sweden vs Czechia for bronze (MSN)