Chytil out of the lineup and that Lemieux penalty
By Steve Paulus
The injury bug has been relatively gentle to the New York Rangers over the first five games of the season. Kevin Rooney was the only player to miss any time, but now, it appears that Filip Chytil could miss some more time.
Filip Chytil has returned to New York for evaluation by team doctors and will be unavailable tomorrow vs. BUF.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 25, 2021
The fact that Chytil was returned to New York for evaluation is not a good sign, considering that the team has two road games this week in Buffalo. Not only that, he had to fly back on a commercial flight, something to be avoided during the pandemic. The injury has been described as upper body and there has been speculation that it was an arm injury. Incidentally, Evan Rodrigues,the player he collided with has been ruled out “long term” with a knee injury by the Penguins.
If Chytil is out for a while, Coach David Quinn will have to figure out what to do with the one line that has been intact for a few games. He has been experimenting, constantly moving players around and now he has one more line to worry about.
After practice in Buffalo, Quinn talked about the first five games. “I think we’ve done a lot of good things, but it doesn’t equate to winning. We have been just, just off…statistically, it looks like should have a much better record than we do, but we don’t and that’s what winning and losing is all about. ”
He was optimistic saying “When everything falls into place and the guys who have been here a while, guy who are veterans, find their game… and if we continue to do the things we’ve been doing, we think we’re going to be in in good shape. ”
Although it’s easy to sound the alarms because of the Rangers’ record,they have not been playing badly and could easily be 4-1-0 instead of 1-3-1. Quinn has to be pleased with his defense pairing of Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller along with holdovers Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren. While Tony DeAngelo and Brendan Smith were both -2 on the game last night, the goals were really not their fault The big question on defense is if Smith will continue to replace Jack Johnson who has not looked good so far or will Quinn try Libor Hajek or Tony Bitetto, both on the taxi squad.
One definite change will be in goal where Alexandar Georgiev will get the start. Quinn said he talked to Igor Shesterkin who was “frustrated.”