New York Rangers vs New York Islanders: A 6-2 thrashing of their rivals

Notes on the game

• With his fourth straight home game with three points, Artemi Panarin joins Andy Bathgate as the only Rangers to accomplish that feat.
• Panarin now has 17 points in his last seven home games.
• This was Panarin’s 20th multi-point game of the season , tied for the most in the NHL.
• In 13 career games against the Islanders Panarin has seven goals and 20 points.
• Marc Staal played 18:07 after missing a game with an injury.  It was also Staal’s 33rd birthday.
• With Staal’s return, Libor Hajek was a healthy scratch along with Phil Di Giuseppe who had been called up from Hartford earlier in the day.
• Georgiev improved his record to 3-0 in starts against the Islanders, he has now stopped 90 of 94 shots in his four games against the Isles.  That’s a .957 save percentage.
• Coach David Quinn gave no indication who would be in net on Thursday, but acknowledged that Georgiev’s performance and record against the Islanders would be taken into consideration.
• Chris Krieder led the team with seven shots.  Panarin was right behind with six.
• Mika Zibanejad was held scoreless at home for the first time since a loss to Montreal on December 6, a span of seven games.
• After getting no game misconducts in the first 43 games of the season, the Rangers now have gotten two in two games.  Jacob Trouba got a game misconduct against St. Louis and Brendan Smith got one tonight.
• With the win, the Rangers move within six points of the last wild card spot, currently occupied by the Philadelphia Flyers.
• Micheal Haley played only 4:15, but he had a significant role in the Rangers’ victory, all related to his fight with Ross Johnston.
• This was only the third time this season the Islanders have allowed six or more goals in a game and it was the most goals scored on them in  road game this season.
• The six goals the Rangers scored are a season high that they have achieved six times.  They have also scored over five goals in each of their last five home games.
• The Rangers actually won the battle of the faceoff dots, winning 23 of 44 draws (52%).
• On Thursday, Adam Fox will play at the Nassau Coliseum, less than nine miles from where he grew upon Long Island.
• Mathew Barzal usually torments the Rangers, but not in this game.  He was scoreless and was a minus four on the night.