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New York Rangers: NHL Milestones within Easy Reach

By Jay Travers |

As the 2015-16 NHL season approaches, 17 days until the first New York Rangers preseason game to be exact, there seems to be many milestones hockey players are closing in on, including two of the Rangers’ star players. The Hockey News‘ Yearbook for this season reports several of these milestones.

After an explosive regular season that included 42 goals and 27 assists, right winger Rick Nash is 22 goals away from 400. He currently has 378.

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Nash finished third in the goals scored category, behind Steven Stamkos and Alex Ovechkin with 43 and 53 goals, respectively. But a big question that is posed often is if Nash can perform again next year and have another 40 goal season. Can he? Only if he’s willing to work. If he gets into a slump, Nash has the ability to get out of the funk; he can’t stay down and hope it passes. Nash will be deadly next year.

The offensive side of the game is important, but so is defense. More specifically, goaltending. The Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist is five shutouts away from reaching 60, and that’s no easy feat.

In New York, it means something to be a goaltender whose name is thrown around with legends of the game, like Ed Giacomin and Mike Richter. Lundqvist already has six more shutouts than Giacomin, and 31 more than Richter. It’s a fair statement to say Henrik Lundqvist is one of the best goaltenders the Rangers have ever had, if not the best.

Aside from some of the Rangers players, the rest of the league has some exciting milestones that will be broken this year.

Patrick Marleau, Vinny Lecavalier, and Henrik Sedin are close to 1,000 points; Marleau has 988, Lecavalier has 931, and Sedin has 915.

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For goals, Jarome Iginla is 11 shy of 600. Marian Hossa (486), Alex Ovechkin (475), and Patrick Marleau (456) are closing in on 500.

At a race for 400 goals, it’s Rick Nash and Marian Gaborik, both are around the same, numbers wise, with 378 and 374. Pavel Datsyuk, Thomas Vanek, Corey Perry, and Henrik Zetterberg are all close to 300, with Datsyuk and Vanek sharing 298 goals, as well as Perry and Zetterberg sharing 296 goals. Iginla also has 94 game winning goals, six away from 100.

Henrik Zetterberg (490), Jason Spezza (481), and Ryan Getzlaf (470) are within reach of 500 assists

Four players are closing in on 1,000 games in the NHL: Nick Schultz with 960, Shawn Horcoff with 949, Mike Riberio with 947, and Mike Fisher with 946.

An NHL legend is close to his 200th playoff point, currently at 199, and his name is Jaromir Jagr. Closing in on 100 playoff points is Ryan Getzlaf, currently sitting at 94.

Three goalies have a chance to get 200 wins this year as Niklas Backstrom has 194, Antti Niemi has 190, and Jonas Hiller has 188. While on the topic of goalies, Roberto Luongo has 68 shutouts, two shy of 70. Henrik Lundqvist has 55, five shy of 60. And in the playoffs, Jonathan Quick and Corey Crawford share 45 playoff wins, five away from 50 and Antti Niemi has 35 wins, 15 off of 50,

To wrap up, two coaches are approaching the 500 wins mark. The coaches are Dave Tippett, with 488, and Claude Julien, with 470.

As of right now, it looks like the NHL is going to be very exciting this year. A lot of rookies are ready to make a mark on their careers and a lot of teams may be making a surprise run in the playoffs in both the East and the West.

All I can say is, I can’t wait for hockey to be back on Broadway. I made a quick stop by the Garden yesterday, and it felt great to be back home.

Next: Who Will Light the Lamp First?

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