The New York Rangers are looking at a break in the schedule that could last a week. Their game on Sunday against the Flyers was postponed and right now, their game on Tuesday against the Devils is iffy. As of Saturday, 18 Devils players are unable to play or practice due to the NHL’s COVID protocols. If they are still out by Monday, the game won’t happen.
Thursday, the Rangers are supposed to play the Flyers who currently have seven players out due to the COVID protocols. That game is in jeopardy.
If you don’t believe that, the NHL has asked the Rangers if they would be available to replace the Flyers in Sunday’s Honda NHL Outdoors Sunday game against the Bruins. The Rangers organization has indicated that they would be willing. What that would mean for their two-game series in Washington scheduled for next weekend remains to be seen. It is kind of a mess.
Seeing multiple reports that the Rangers could be the backup team for the Lake Tahoe game. Reported yesterday that NHL has backup plans in case any of the four teams can't go. Obviously some concern about the Flyers at this point. https://t.co/bzAMy3cQGd
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) February 11, 2021
Practice time
The fact is, with all of these postponements, it means that the schedule in April and May will be crammed full of makeup games. The NHL is on a tight time frame if they want to conclude the Stanley Cup Playoffs before the Tokyo Olympics start on July 23. No matter how you look at it, it is a schedule maker’s nightmare.
What it does mean is that the Rangers have a lot of time to work on the issues that have made this a challenging season for them.
The Rangers unveiled new forward lines in practice on Saturday.
#NYR practice lines:
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) February 13, 2021
Kreider - Mika - Blackwell
Laf - Strome - Kakko
PDG - Howden - Buch
Lemieux - Rooney - Gauthier
The big change is moving Pavel Buchnevich down to the third line and replacing him with Colin Blackwell. After practice Coach David Quinn acknowledged that Buchnevich had been “struggling lately” and making the move could help him. Since scoring two goals in the second game of the season, he has only one open net goal in 11 games to go with five assists. One saving grace for his season has been his work ethic and his contributions on the penalty kill to go along with his eight points.
That’s not to say that his linemates Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider are on fire. Zibanejadhas not scored since the third game of the season and has only two assists. That’s three points on the season while averaging 20:46 minutes of playing time.
Meanwhile, Kreider has four goals in 12 games and has yet to get an assist and is scoreless in his last four games. He is playing an average of 17:41 minutes per game, the most average ice time in his career.
Quinn talked about the slumps facing his top players. “Unfortunately, we have a bunch of guys going through it at the same time.. Right now collectively we have it happening…it’s not from a lack of effort, these guys have a proven track record..they’re gonna get out of it….we don’t have much more time for them to get out of it.”