The bye week is over. The important games start today. Here are today’s news and links:

Rangers News:

• Larry Brooks reports that Kevin Hayes is “50-50” to play in today’s matinee against the Islanders (NY Post)
• Justin Tasch thinks consistency must be the key to New York’s second half (NY Daily News)
• Sean Hartnett writes that the Rangers don’t have much time left to discover themselves (CBS)
• Dave Shapiro addresses Bob McKenzie’s remark that the team should “judiciously sell” at the trade deadline (Blue Seat Blogs)
• Justin Rutherford hands out report cards for Henrik Lundqvist and Ondrej Pavelec (Blue Seat Blogs)
• David Bruce hands out report cards for the Blueshirts’ bottom six forwards (Blue Line Station)
• Jack Milewski suggests four moves New York can make leading up to the deadline (Blue Line Station)
• Frank Curto discusses how the Winter Classic wasn’t J.T. Miller’s first time coming up clutch in an outdoor game (Elite Sports NY)
• Rick Carpiniello handicaps New York’s chances of qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs (MSG)
• Dimitri Filipovic was joined by Nick Mercadante in a Rangers-centric edition of the Hockey PDO-cast (1:04:34 audio via Sportsnet)
• Johnluke Chapparo reminisces on a handful of lesser-known Rangers players (Forever Blueshirts)/

Around the NHL:

• Adam Gretz examines which teams are set up for long term success due to shrewd salary cap management, and which teams aren’t (NBC Sports)
• Darren Dreger analyzes “own rentals” and how they factor into each team’s plans ahead of the trade deadline (TSN)
• Andrew Bottomley relays wordthat Bridgeport Sound Tigers head coach Brent Thompson referred to prospect Josh Ho-Sang as “immature” and “a baby” (Sportsnet)
• Alex Kolodziej reports that the Anaheim Ducks and forward Andrew Cogliano have agreed to a three year, $9.75 million contract extension (FanRag)/