Bantering Points: 12/18/16

The New York Rangers concluded their road trip through the south with another two points against the Nashville Predators. Another stellar effort from Henrik Lundqvist and two shootout goals from Mats Zuccarello and Jimmy Vesey carried New York to victory for the first time after 65:00 this season. The team is in for a quick turnaround though, as the Rangers are back in action against the New Jersey Devils tonight. Here are today's news and links:

Rangers News:

• Highlights: NYR 2, NSH 1 (4:20 Video via NHL.com)
• Game Recap: Jimmy Vesey made the team that drafted him pay by scoring a shootout goal to help propel New York to a win (CBS)
• Dan Martin goes around the room to hear why the Rangers skaters did nothing to stand up for their franchise goaltender after he was ran by Cody Eakin on Thursday night (NY Post)
• Martin also described how Jimmy Vesey was able to get revenge on his former team last night (NY Post)
• Justin Tasch reports that Brady Skjei regrets not doing anything to stand up for Henrik Lundqvist against the Stars (NY Daily News)
• Steven Loffredo discusses how Nick Holden has been an unexpected bright spot among the Rangers' defense corps (The Hockey Writers)
• Dave Shapiro notes that has New York has played better as of late, the wins have started piling up again (Blue Seat Blogs)
• Tom Urtz Jr. breaks down how Jimmy Vesey has been a revelation for the Rangers' offense (Blueshirt Bulletin)
• Garrett Gartino releases the third edition of the Rangers mid-season report cards, focusing on the defenseman this time (Blue Line Station)
• Alexandra Russo displays how Mika Zibanejad's value has only risen despite the time he's missed due to injury (Blue Line Station)
• Postgame Notes: New York improved on it's league-best road record by taking two points with them on their way out of Bridgestone Arena (Official Team Site)
• Postgame Interviews: Jimmy Vesey, (1:26) Ryan McDonagh, (1:29) Alain Vigneault, (2:58) and Henrik Lundqvist (2:11) (Official Team Site)
• He played seven games for the Rangers in the late stages of 2014 after the J.T. Miller and Martin St. Louis experiments at center failed, and at one point skated on a formidable 4th Line with Tanner Glass and Ryan Malone. Yesterday's player in the picture was.....Chris Mueller (Wikipedia)

Around the NHL:

• Mike Brophy explains the World Junior Championships is hockey at it's best (The Hockey News)
• Andrew Bottomley passes along word that the NHL and NHLPA will meet next week to discuss the possibility of NHL participation in the 2018 Olympics in South Korea (Sportsnet)
• Jen Neale lists the top 10 hockey-related social media moments in 2016 (Puck Daddy)
• Josh Cooper spoke with former Atlanta Thrasher great and current Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios about the state of USA Hockey, and modern evaluation of defenseman
• Petbugs details how to apply CUSUM in order to improve prediction models in hockey statistics. I may as well have been reading hieroglyphics or wingdings, but maybe one of you smarter people can understand it (Hockey Graphs)
• Cam Tucker saw that the Columbus Blue Jackets put forward Gregory Campbell on unconditional waivers, which likely spells the end of Campbell's career in the NHL (NBC Sports)/

Do you know who the Ranger in the picture is?