Bantering Points: 2/12/25

Here are today's news and links:

Rangers News:

Mollie Walker chatted with J.T. Miller about being joined by Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, and Vincent Trocheck as fellow members of Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off (NY Post)

Ariel Zilber reports that New York state governor Kathy Hochul has threatened Altice and Optimum with legal action should the dispute that has resulted in Optimum customers being blacked out of MSG Networks since the calendar flipped to 2025 not be resolved in short order (NY Post)

Vincent Mercogliano notes that after missing multiple weeks of action with AHL Hartford due to an injury, Brennan Othmann could earn an NHL recall sooner rather than later (LoHud)

Stan Fischler gives his assessment of some of New York's players not participating in 4 Nations Face-Off (The Hockey News)

Remy Mastey examines how Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, two of the Blueshirts' closest players, will feel about playing against each other when Team USA and Sweden clash in the tournament (The Hockey News)

Arthur $taple and Peter Baugh a$$e$$ the $tate of the Ranger$ with two-third$ of the $ea$on in the book$ (The Athletic)

Around the NHL:

Veteran forward Loui Eriksson, who has been out of the league since the end of the 2021-22 campaign, officially announced his retirement on Tuesday (TSN)

As Team USA brings the best goaltending group of any team into the 4 Nations Face-Off, that advantage in net is likely to carry over into the 2026 Olympics as well (NBC Sports)

The NHL officially unveiled the trophy set to be given to the winner of the 4 Nations Face-Off (Sportsnet)