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Lias Andersson to Hartford, Tim Gettinger recalled, Haley waived

By Steve Paulus

RALEIGH, NC - NOVEMBER 07: New York Rangers center Lias Andersson (28) during the warmups of the Carolina Hurricanes game versus the New York Rangers on November 7th, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC (Photo by Jaylynn Nash/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC - NOVEMBER 07: New York Rangers center Lias Andersson (28) during the warmups of the Carolina Hurricanes game versus the New York Rangers on November 7th, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC (Photo by Jaylynn Nash/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 23: Lias Andersson #50 of the New York Rangers skates against Corey Schneider #35 of the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on February 23, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 23: Lias Andersson #50 of the New York Rangers skates against Corey Schneider #35 of the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on February 23, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Did Andersson get a fair chance?

That brings us back to Lias Andersson.   This season, Andersson has played in 17 of the Rangers’ 18 games.  He has been almost exclusively used on the fourth line and on the second penalty killing unit.   While he is averaging 9:33 of ice time per game, he has exceeded ten minutes once in the last five games and that was in Tampa when several Rangers spent extended time off the ice with misconduct penalties.

Andersson only notched one assist this year, in the game against Boston which was coincidentally the game he played 13:33,  the most minutes in any game this season.  He is coming off the game in which he saw the least ice time, 3:55 on Saturday in Florida.

In 17 games, Andersson had 13 shots on goal on 14 shot opportunities.  He didn’t have a lot of high danger chances, with only three on the season.  He had only four giveaways and had eight takeaways.

Andersson has shown improvement on faceoffs.   His success ratio this season is 47.6%, as he won 40 of 88 draws.  That’s good for third best on the team, just behind Ryan Strome at 48.1% and Mika ZIbanejad at 51.7 percent.  His winning percentage is slightly better than Brett Howden‘s 46.8% and much ahead of Filip Chytil (35.5%)

Rangers coach David Quinn was asked about Lias Andersson after the morning skate before the game with the Panthers.    After practice he had a conversation with Andersson and was asked about it.  “I just wanted to let him know that we all believe in him.  We all know he’s a good player and young players go through highs and lows in a season.  Our job is to help him get confidence, it’s not to give them confidence.  That’s up to them. It’s that old adage, well, a coach doesn’t have confidence in me, well, the player has to give the coach confidence in him  and we have confidence in Lias.  We know he’s a good player, we know he’s capable of being a good contributor for us .  I just wanted him to know that and reiterate that to  him and expect him to have a good night tonight.”

In a follow up question, he was asked if Andersson could potentially be moved up in the lineup. His answer was blunt.  “If he earns it, he’ll get a different look.  So, that’s something a player earns more than anything.”

He didn’t have much of an opportunity to prove anything as Quinn went to a shortened lineup that resulted in the fourth line seeing hardly any ice time.  After the game, he said it was more of an issue of the top three lines doing well.  “There was a rhythm with those three lines…that’s why we did what we did…I thought all three lines were doing good things.  It was a decision we made…we have two days off…three days off coming up so I wasn’t worried about playing three lines.”

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