Hajek, Kakko and Shesterkin will play against Washington

With the Tony DeAngelo brouhaha subsiding, it’s time to get back to New York Rangers hockey. There was some news out of today’s practice.  Here goes.

Libor Hajek lives!

David Quinn confirmed that Libor Hajek will make his 2021 debut Thursday against the Capitals.  It’s been almost 13 months since he played in an NHL game, but he did play in 10 games in the Czech League for Brno so he has actually played in more games than any of his teammates this season.

It will be a nice birthday present for Hajek who turns 23 on Thursday.

The Rangers blue line is a bit banged up with Jack Johnson and Brendan Smith out of action. it looks like it will be Tony Bitetto and Libor Hajek on the third pair against Washington.

Hajek will be the ninth blueliner to play for the Rangers this season after using only eight last season.  The Penguins lead the NHL with 11 different defensemen suiting up.  The Rangers lead the league in defensemen who have had fistfights with their own goalies.

Bitetto played 14:51 Monday and tied for the team lead in hits with four.  He didn’t look out of place and with 184 NHL games under his belt, he is second to Jacob Trouba in terms of big league experience in the lineup.

He spoke about playing his first game for the Rangers. “It’s amazing, it’s a speechless moment, you can’t really describe it. My whole life growing up it was nothing but Rangers…so to finally put that jersey on in a real game,  it was a special moment.”

He added that not having fans in the stand probably helped him as the Long Island native would have had a large contingent of family at the game otherwise.  He also said that he and Hajek have been practicing  a lot together as they were both on the taxi squad.

In other roster moves, Jonny Brodzinski was sent down to Hartford and  it looks like the goalie rotation idea is out the window as Igor Shesterkin will be making his second straight start.  Quinn was asked about that and he didn’t say the rotation was over, but “Georgie’s been through a lot over the last 48 hours, maybe give him another day or two to unwind a little bitand get back into the groove of things. Shesty played well, so Shesty will play tomorrow for a variety of reasons.”  He did say that the plan is to play Georgiev, but he didn’t say when and how Shesterkin does against the Caps could affect that.

Kakko back

One bit of good news is Kaapo Kakko is off the COVID protocol list and took part in practice.

That means that he didn’t test positive, just might have contact with someone who was at risk or he had an initial positive test that proved to be incorrect.

Kakko should be on the second line with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome if practice lines are an indication.

Quinn was asked why that line was only together for one game. He said “I didn’t love the way things were going and there were other reasons why…when one line changes, there’s a domino effect…I do like the way he’s (Kakko)  played lately and right now with our lineup it’s our best look.”

Howden got the Broadway Hat

Brett Howden, resident pugilist for the Rangers, was awarded the Broadway Hat by his teammates after the win on Monday night.  Howden took on the Penguins’ resident enforcer (not really), Kasperi Kapanen, in the team’s first fight of the season.

It was Howden’s first fight in the NHL and his first major penalty.  By the same time last season the team had had two fights, by Brendan Lemieux and Brendan Smith, both in the same game against Washington.  Lemieux took on Radko Gudas and Smith took on Garnet Hathaway.

Howden was asked if the fight was an effort to pick up the team.  He said that it was not his intent. “It just kind of escalated pretty quickly, it kind of happened, I wasn’t thinking about anything before or after…I’d like to hope it gave us a little spark, but nothing was going through my mind, it happened pretty quickly. ”

Drury staying put

Chris Drury had been mentioned as a top candidate for the general manager job in Pittsburgh, but the report is that he has no interest in leaving the Rangers organization.

Of course this will fuel speculation that he is the heir apparent to Jeff Gorton, but you have to consider that he is a key member of one of the top organizations in the NHL with a bright future.   It’s good to know he wants to stay.

Interest in DeAngelo

You didn’t think we would get this post without a mention of Tony DeAngelo, did you?  On TSN’s Insider Training, Darren Drager had this to say:  “Keep an eye on Tony DeAngelo of the New York Rangers. We know that he’s been told to go home and await a trade. There’s a ton of interest all of  sudden…I’m told, according to a source, DeAngelo could be moved within the next few days.”

The key question is what can the Rangers get for him.  The good news is if there is a lot of interest, it would improve the potential return.

PWHPA comes to the Garden

In a first, the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA)  will play a game at Madison Square Garden, the first time a womens professional team will play there.

The game will be played on February 28 and the Rangers are the first NHL team to host a PWHPA game. There’s no word if the game will be televised on the MSG Network.  The Rangers play the Bruins at Madison Square Garden on the same day.