Your Rangers’ Chew: 10/11/15 (Stats, Facts, Streaks & Tidbits)

10/10/15 Columbus Blue Jackets Vs. New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden: Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist makes a save with the puck on the stick, off a shot by Blue Jackets Ryan Johansen in the second period at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, USA, 10 October 2015.

* With the 3-0 start to start the 2015-16 NHL season, this is only the 8th time in franchise history the team is undefeated heading into their 4th scheduled game:



* Dating back to January 16, 2015: the NY Rangers now have a 5-game winning streak against the Columbus Blue Jackets, outscoring them 18-11.

* This is NYR’s first home-opener victory since 2009 (a 5-2 win over Ottawa).

* Anybody know the record for most Top-10-Saves-of-the-Year saves to take place in a single NHL game? Henrik Lundqvist, ladies and gentlemen:

* Lundqvist has not won 4 consecutive starts to begin a season since 2008-09 (the only time in his career he’s gone 4-0 to begin a season).

* Lundqvist’s 100 saves in the opening 3 games to start the season is a new record for him. His previous record was 93 saves (2011).

* Lundqvist is on a career-high 4-game win-streak when he is playing his 3rd game in 4 days, where both of the first 2 games were wins. Lundqvist’s career numbers in this scenario: 9-6-3, .918 save %, 2.42 GAA.

* Lundqvist’s career numbers against Columbus at Madison Square Garden have improved to: 4-2-1, .900 save %, 3.17 GAA.

* Oscar Lindberg is the first Ranger rookie to score 4 goals in his first 4 NHL games since Steven King did it in 1992. Lindberg is also the first Ranger rookie to score 4 points in his first 4 NHL games since Carl Hagelin did it in 2011 (1 goal, 3 assists). Hagelin was also the last Ranger to have his first 5 NHL games be NYR wins, which Lindberg can accomplish should he be in the lineup for a NYR victory on Tuesday night.

* J.T. Miller is the first NY Ranger to notch 4 assists in the first 3 games of the season since Brad Richards did it in January 2013. Should he register an assist in Tuesday night’s game against Winnipeg, he’d be the first Rangers since Jaromir Jagr (2007) to tally 5 assists in the season’s first 4 games. Or, should Miller register 2 assists on Tuesday (to start the season with 6 assists in the first 4 games), that would also be the first time it has happened since Jagr (2006) did it.

* Kevin Klein led all Rangers in icetime in both Friday’s game & Saturday’s game against Columbus. This comes as a bit of a surprise from a fully-healthy New York blueline. Prior to Friday, Klein had only done this 3 times in his 135 games as a Ranger (10/12/14 vs Toronto, 1/3/15 vs Buffalo & 1/15/15 at Boston). This weekend represented the first 2 games that Klein led all Rangers in icetime in a game against a division opponent.

* Rick Nash has 0 points in his first 3 games of the season. The only other time this has happened in Nash’s career was the opening 3 games in 2005-06 (where Nash would go on to score a goal in his 4th game). Should Nash go pointless in Tuesday’s contest against Winnipeg, it would be the first time in his career he’d open a season with 4 pointless games. Can you imagine how much this would be talked about had the Rangers started the season 0-3?

* And finally, on a bit more of a personal note, I thought I’d re-visit my off-season predictions for NYR goalscoring, seeing as we’re already three games deep:

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