New York Rangers: The Kaapo Kakko yoyo continues and Micheal Haley surgery

The New York Rangers are licking their wounds after they lost to the Buffalo Sabres in a game that was distinctive for their lack of effort.  Two late goals cannot make up for the fact that the Blueshirts were stifled by the Sabres for the entire game.

It was another game that featured curious deployment of one of their crown jewels.  Kaapo Kakko started the game and  played most of the first three periods on the fourth  line with Greg McKegg and Brett Howden, supplanted on the third line by Phil Di Giuseppe.

In the first two and a half periods he had  10:40 of ice time playing with that pair.  With ten minutes left in the game, he was teamed with Ryan Strome and Jesper Fast and was on the ice for the last two minutes when the Rangers pulled their goaltender.  In all, he was on the ice for almost four minutes in the last ten minutes of the game.

In those last four minutes he had two shots, drew a penalty and assisted on Chris Kreider‘s power play goal.

Tough love

What’s clear is that David Quinn has resorted to the tough love strategy that he has used since he became coach.   It seems to have worked with Pavel Buchnevich, though he has required numerous trips to the “Quinn bin” to keep him in line.  The coach demoted Ryan Strome to the third line for the start of the Toronto game in an effort to push the center to do better.

It’s obvious that the coach sees demotion and less playing time as an incentive to push his players to do better.  But does it work?

After practice on Friday, Quinn was asked if he thought that Kakko was ready to take the next step.

“I think he’s had typical ups and downs  and he definitely looks more confident with the puck for sure.  There’s definitely more swagger to him without the puck , I’m underlying without the puck …there’s definitely more swagger to him without the puck and as most 18-year old’s need to continue to learn, this game, especially here, is a lot different from over in Europe.”

Asked why he underlined “without the puck,” Quinn continued   “Like most 18 year old’s that’s an area that he has to continue to improve on and when we’re in crunch time as we are now…you evaluate everybody’s total game and not just the flashes and I think a player of his magnitude is always under the microscope so when he does something well we all get excited, as we do, but it’s a complete evaluation of his game and he’s made great strides and he’s got to continue to make great strides and I always use Svechnikov as an example , parallel to him.  He struggled last year, and right about now is when started making that pop and that’s what we’re hoping that Kaapo does.”

So, Kakko started on the fourth line and didn’t see extensive action until the last ten minutes of the game.  When it came to possession, Kakko led the team in Corsi percentage at even strength with a 69.23% figure.  He did substantially better when teamed with Strome and Fast as opposed to Howden and McKegg.

But did that move up in the lineup come too late?