New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are already making moves before the Feb.

When the New York Rangers decided there was no place in the roster for Sean Avery, he was placed on waivers for the second time of the season on Dec. 30, 2011. A day later, he would clear waivers and has remained in the Rangers' AHL affiliate, the Hartford Whale, ever since.

In 15 games played for the Rangers this season, he has only three goals and 15 shots on goal.

With the NHL trade deadline approaching, the New York Rangers are sitting pretty atop the Eastern Conference standings.

However, they are ranked 26th in the NHL on the power play, 22nd in shots per game and 26th in penalty minutes per game.

If New York wants to make serious noise in the month of May, it should make at least one serious move to improve at least one of these areas, within the next 24 days.

Here are five rumors as to what that move could be.

The New York Rangers are looking to add a top six forward at the NHL trade deadline. However, they don't want to sell the farm to acquire a player. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun has posted this latest rumor involving the New York Rangers and Teemu Selanne.

The NY Rangers square off today against the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins for their highly anticipated first meeting of the season.  Both teams are playing strong and hard, leading their prospective divisions. The Rangers are in No. 1 in the Atlantic Division with a record of 29-12-4 and 62 points and the Bruins are No. 1 in the Northeast Division with a record of 30-13-1 and 61 points.

Thursday night the streaking New York Rangers fell to the Ottawa Senators in a 3-0 shutout. Prior to the game the Rangers were on yet another 5 game win-streak, adding to their simply amazing first half of the 2011-2012 season.

Last year, Michael Del Zotto played in just 47 games for the New York Rangers. By late February, 2011, the Rangers organization made the decision to send him down to their AHL affiliate, the Connecticut Whale.

Del Zotto would only play 11 games for the Whale before suffering a string of injuries.

The New York Rangers are a team with the potential to make some serious noise in the playoffs if they can tighten up their roster with a few key pickups at the deadline. However, a New York Post report by columnist Larry Brooks shed some light on the possibility that Wojtek Wolski may be dealt to give the Rangers some flexibility.

With a 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins last night, the New York Rangers moved their season point total to 56.

That puts them three points ahead of last year's two Stanley Cup finalists, the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins, for tops in the NHL (although Boston does have two games in hand on New York).

The NHL has some of the toughest men on the face of the earth gracing its ice, but sometimes emotions run high.

That’s what happened when the New York Rangers took on the Florida Panthers and things got physical in front of Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers’ net.