No practice for the team and their game with the Philadelphia Flyers was postponed so not much happening in the world of the New York Rangers. There were some odds and ends to report on despite the day off.
The Rangers will be allowing season ticket holders first crack at tickets to games at Madison Square Garden. They did establish a mailing list for fans interested in attending games. There is a sign up available on the Rangers’ website. For the link, click here.
Next game
The next game on the schedule is supposed to be on Tuesday night at the Garden against the New Jersey Devils. As of Sunday, 13 Devils players are still on the league’s COVID protocol list and if they are still on the list tomorrow, the odds of the game being played are slim to none. The Devils have not had a full team practice in over a week and they last played on January 31. Their game Monday night against the Bruins has already been postponed.
Filip Chytil remains the only Ranger on the COVID list, but he is still on the injury list so it has no effect on the team.
If the game Tuesday is postponed, the next game on the schedule is Thursday night against the Flyers who currently have seven players on the list including Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Morgan Frost, Justin Braun, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom and Travis Sanheim,
The Flyers last played on February 7 and after the game with the Rangers they are supposed to play in the outdoor game in Lake Tahoe on Sunday, February 21. It will be worth keeping track of the Flyers’ situation as it could affect the game on Thursday.
DeAngelo speaks
If you missed it, Tony DeAngelo did a phone interview with the New York Post’s Larry Brooks on Friday. In the interview, DeAngelo took full responsibility for what happened and didn’t play the victim. He said that the incident with Alexandar Georgiev was a situation where emotions took over and he said that he regretted it.
One thing that should be put to rest is the story that DeAngelo and K’Andre Miller had issues. The Miller story was categorically denied by Miller’s agent and DeAngelo did the same when it comes to the issue of racism. While his actions in junior hockey resulted in his suspension at the time, DeAngelo said that he regretted that had happened and it would never happen again.
As for his immediate future, DeAngelo knows it is out of his hands and the Rangers have not been overwhelmed with teams interested in acquiring him. It may take the April 12 trade deadline before teams may be willing to take the risk of acquiring a player with DeAngelo’s history.
In the meantime fans can bemoan the fact that the Rangers power play is awful without him. The truth is that they were 1-13 with the man advantage in the five games leading up to his suspension and they have gone 1-19 without him.
Kravtsov and Lundkvist at the Beijer Hockey Games
Two Rangers prospects were in action at the Beijer Hockey Games in Malmo, Sweden, annual tournament also known as the Swedish Hockey Games. This year it featured teams from the Czech Republic Finland, Russia and Sweden with Russia finishing first with a 3-0 record. Sweden finished second with a 2-0-1 record. Finland finished third and the Czech Republic ended up fourth.
Nils Lundqvist played for Team Sweden and Vitali Kravtsov was on Team Russia. Lundkvist finished with one goal while Kravtsov was scoreless in three games.
Lundkvist scored a power play goal in Sweden’s 3-2 overtime win over the Czech Republic, the first goal for Sweden in that contest. In that game, Lundkvist led all skaters in ice time, playing 24:56 and he had a game high six shots on goal.
The two prospects faced each other in one game, a 2-1 shootout win for Russia. Lundkvist played 28:07 minutes, five minutes more than any other Swedish player. He finished with three shots on goal and missed on his shootout attempt.
Kravtsov played only six shifts for 4:41 minutes and didn’t see much action in the games.
Both players are headed back to their respective pro leagues, the KHL and the SHL. Lundkvist was one of the most important players on the Tre Kronors team and should be headed to North America once the SHL season is over. The same goes for Kravtsov and the KHL.