Stats to chew on

– Justin Schultz has 4 goals on the season; Rangers defensemen have combined to score 4.
– All 4 of Schultz’s tallies have come on the power play; New York has 4 power play goals as a team. David Clarkson, Patrick Marleau and James Neal already have 5 power play tallies each.
– If you see a Southeast Division team on the schedule, you should feel pretty confident. New York went 15-3-2 against the Southeast last year and is 2-0-0 this season. (via @Mike_Rappaport)
– Carl Hagelin went goal-less for 36 games but has now scored 3 in his last 4 contests.
– All 5 of Hagelin’s points have come against Tampa Bay. (via Outside the Garden)
– Anton Stralman is the only Ranger that has played in every game and not been penalized this season. (via Commenter Jakki)
– The Rangers have 12 points in 11 games this season, which puts them on pace for 52 points. We projected it would take 53 points to make the playoffs this year.
– New York’s current pace would put the team on track for 89 points in a full 82 game season. The Blueshirts racked up 109 points last year.
– The Blueshirts had 13 points after 11 games last year.
– Derek Stepan is showing dramatic improvement at the faceoff dot. Last year he won 44.5% of his draws, but this year Stepan has won 51.8% of the time.
– Jeff Halpern, on the other hand, was brought in to win faceoffs and has not. Halpern has only won 46.5% of his faceoff attempts, down from 58.4% last year.
– No Rangers are in the top-20 time on ice leaders; both Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi were top-15 last year. Coach John Tortorella is trusting other defenders a little more.
-In the month of January, Henrik Lundqvist had the lowest GVT (-2.0) among all Rangers players. Since then, he has boosted his -2.0 GVT to 1.7. That amounts to an additional point in the standings (PVT = GVT/3).
-The next biggest jumps in GVT over the first two weeks in January: Ryan McDonagh (-0.6 to 0.6), Carl Hagelin (-0.6 to 0.6), Marc Staal (1.6 to 3.1). All three have half the jump that Lundqvist has.

Status of the Atlantic Division rivals
Devils: 19 points. Next 5: vsCar, vsPhi, @NYI, vsOtt, @Wash
Penguins: 16 points. Next 5: vsOtt, @Wpg, @Buf, vsPhi, vsFla
Flyers: 11 points. Next 5: @Wpg, @NJD, @Mon, @NYI, @Pit
Islanders: 9 points. Next 5: @NYR, vsNJD, vsPhi, @Ott, @Mon

Recent ex-Ranger watch
Brandon Prust – 11gp, 1g, 2a, 67PIM
John Mitchell – 10gp, 4g, 3a, +7
Brandon Dubinsky – 13gp, 1g, 6a. Scored his first goal last night
Artem Anisimov – 13gp, 4g, 2a
Tim Erixon – 6gp, 0g, 2a
Ruslan Fedotenko – 13gp, 1g, 3a
Wade Redden – 8gp, 2g, 0a, -7. Got his butt kicked trying to defend a teammate last night
Mike Rupp – 11gp, 0g, 0a, 12PIM

Team rankings entering last night’s games
– New York is ranked 18th in goals for, 10th in goals against, 29th on the power play and 14th on the penalty kill.
– The Rangers rank 3rd in the NHL in goals scored on home ice with 23. New York ranks 29th in goals on the road with 6. The Rangers have only allowed 10 goals in 7 road games, 2nd-fewest in the NHL.
– New York has allowed 6 power play goals on home ice, 2nd most in the league.