New York Rangers: Updates from practice and Coach Quinn on 1/30

Following a disappointing 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, January 29th, the New York Rangers returned to practice on Wednesday.

In year’s past, the New York Rangers typically would have had a light practice following a game day. However, with the injury bug rearing its ugly head, coach David Quinn is mixing players into different situations in preparation for Thursday contest in New Jersey against the Devils.

First, starting with the injury updates, forward Brett Howden who left last night’s game after only 4:46 of ice time with a knee injury is expected to be out an extended period of time. Coach Quinn announced that the rookie forward needs to have an MRI and will likely be out “a while.” Forward Jesper Fast was given a maintenance day to rest today and did not participate.

Forward Mats Zuccarello who sat out Tuesday’s contest with a foot infection is unsure of his status for the matchup on Thursday but is feeling better every single day and that the infection is from an injury he suffered against the Blackhawks when he blocked a shot.

With Howden injured and Fast sitting out for maintenance the team needed a wing at least temporarily and put Tony DeAngelo alongside Kevin Hayes and Jimmy Vesey on the second line. It is unknown whether this was just for practice or something that the team is seriously considering as a solution to the logjam on the blue line.

In addition to the injury updates and the lines, the other word out of practice was Quinn putting a major emphasis on the importance of faceoffs. Even during the course of last night’s broadcast on the MSG network, both Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti referenced that Quinn was getting frustrated with the lack of wins in the dot.

So, naturally, the former college coach stepped into the circle and demonstrated what he was looking for himself.

Part of the emphasis according to Micheletti on the broadcast last night was that if the Rangers would win more faceoffs, it, in turn, would mean that the team controlled the puck. Part of this lesson also was focused on instructing the wingers to pursue the puck in the circle if the center went for a tie-up.

This was also something mentioned during last night’s broadcast, that even if the Rangers’ center cannot win the faceoff outright, a tie-up is still better than a clean loss. This was especially the case against the Flyers who feature Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier who are both excellent at faceoffs.

Facing a Devils team that throttled the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on Monday night, the Rangers will have to be ready to be lulled to sleep. The Devil’s system is oriented around slowing play down in the neutral zone similar to the way the Flyers play and we all saw how well that went on Tuesday.