The Rangers have had a very different start to the year than last season.  They’ve had to deal with games in Europe, a trip to Long Island, followed by a visit to Vancouver, one of the most distant oppponents they have in the league.  Last year they also visited Long Island, but in their first four games they never even left the state – they played two games at MSG and another in Buffalo.

Results wise, they’re actually slightly ahead of last season, beating a 1-2-1 record with a 1-1-2 to be at .500 points wise after four games.  Last year they scored 14 goals and gave up 16, which contrasts greatly with this season where they’ve scored only 9 goals, but also held their opponents to just 9, including one credited for the shootout loss.

Not surprisingly, Henrik Lundqvist has better stats this season compared to last.  His miserly .947 save percentage and 1.69 goals against average is a substantial improvement over the .892 and 3.73 from last season.

As for John Tortorella’s hot-button issue, the Rangers have amassed 89 penalty minutes compared to 50 last year.  The numbers aren’t quite as bad though, consider that Brandon Dubinsky has taken two misconduct penalties, and the Rangers have taken one more fighting major than last season, leaving the team with seven more minors…or almost two more per game.

The following is the number of goals for each player compared to last year:

+3 Marian Gaborik
+1 Ryan Callahan
+1 Brandon Prust
0 Steve Eminger
0 Ruslan Fedotenko
-1 Artem Anisimov
-1 Brian Boyle
-1 Erik Christensen
-1 Michael Del Zotto
-1 Dan Girardi
-3 Brandon Dubinsky
-3 Derek Stepan

Points wise compared to last year:

+3 Brandon Prust
+2 Ruslan Fedotenko
+1 Marian Gaborik
-1 Artem Anisimov
-1 Brian Boyle
-1 Ryan Callahan
-1 Erik Christensen
-1 Steve Eminger
-2 Michael Del Zotto
-2 Brandon Dubinsky
-3 Dan Girardi
-4 Derek Stepan