It looks like the New York Rangers will be back in action on Tuesday despite the pandemic issues facing the New Jersey Devils. As of Monday, the number of Devils players unavailable due to the COVID protocol dropped from 13 on Saturday to only four. Of the four, Nico Hischier has been injured and has not played a game this season. The question is whether Nikita Gusev, Dmitry Kulikov and Travis Zajac who are on the list, will be able to play. There was a report in The Athletic (subscription required) that Hischier is ready to make his debut this season and will play as soon as he is cleared off the list.
COVID mandated breaks
It will be interesting for the Rangers to play the Devils, a team that hasn’t played a game since they beat Buffalo 5-3 on January 31. The Devils have practiced, but not with a full squad. The question is whether the long layoff it will hurt them. After practice Monday, Quinn pointed out that the Dallas Stars played well after a hiatus.
The Stars started their season a week late, but won their first four games, outscoring the opposition 19-6. It’s worth noting that the Devils did not go to the Stanley Cup Final last season.
The Islanders lost five in a row going into five days of no action and regrouped coming out of it, going 4-0-1. Conversely, the Buffalo Sabres haven’t play a game since January 31 and were back in action on Monday night and lost to the Islanders 3-1.
35 games have been postponed so far this season and the East Division leads the way with 14 games not played. The West has had 13 postponements and the Central has seen eight games rescheduled. The Canadian Division has yet to have to postpone a game. The East is tops because the Devils, Sabres and Flyers have had multiple incidents of players unavailable due to the protocol.
When Monday’s Dallas-Nashville game was postponed, it was a relief that it was weather-related.
Injury update
Artemi Panarin did not practice on Monday and is listed as day-to-day. While Quinn said he might play, when pressed, he shed some doubt on the possibility. Talking about Panarin, he said “Unless he comes in chomping at the bit and takes a pregame skate, the chances are zero he’ll play. If he feels good, we’ll make a decision.”
K’Andre Miller has an upper body injury and left practice early as a precaution. Brendan Smith is off the injured list and ready. Jack Johnson is “getting closer.”
As for Filip Chytil, he is listed on the NHL COVID protocol list, but he was still going to be out 4-6 weeks from his last game on January 24. We probably won’t see him until the first week of March.
Ryan Lindgren spoke to the press after practice and said he good to go after taking a nasty cut near his eye on Friday night.
Stars: They're just like us. pic.twitter.com/QlwIgx1zqc
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 15, 2021
Line changes
On Saturday at practice there was a new first line on the ice with Colin Blackwell moved up to play with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. The second line remained the same (without Panarin). Pavel Buchnevich was on the third line with Brett Howden and Phil Di Giuseppe.
Every player on the top line has been slumping badly though Buchnevich has scored the most of the trio. Kreider has three goals and no assists in 13 games. Last season after the same number of games he had three goals, but had added four helpers.
Blackwell spoke after practice about the opportunity to play with Zibanejad and Kreider. “I’m looking at the both of them and trying to play to their skill set. For me it’s going into the corners and trying to create a little offense, get the energy going that way…doing the little things to get those guys the puck.” Blackwell called himself a “Swiss army knife” when talking about his ability to play up and down the lineup.
Igor Shesterkin will be getting the start, his second in a row. Though he is 3-4-1 in his eight starts, he is starting to climb up the stats charts. His Goals Against Average of 2.16 is fifth best in the NHL among goalies who have played in eight games. His Save Percentage of .922 is ninth best. He has allowed only eight goals in his last five starts.
Even with the injuries the Rangers have not been hit as hard as other teams in their division. The Rangers have used 26 players this season while Washington leads with 29 and Pittsburgh with 28. The Devils have used the fewest, 24 players, but they have also played only nine games. four or five games fewer than most teams in the East.
East Division
Though there are eight teams in the East, due to COVID postponements there has been only one division game each night. Monday, the Islanders beat the Sabres 3-1 in Buffalo’s return from pandemic limbo. Sunday the Penguins beat the Capitals and Saturday it was the Islanders over the Bruins.
What it means is the Rangers remain in sixth place, ahead of New Jersey and Buffalo and falling behind the rest of the teams. The bad news is they lead the Devils and Sabres by a point, but both teams have multiple games in hand.
- Boston 14 GP 10-2-2 22 pts
- Philadelphia 13 GP 8-3-2 18 pts
- Islanders 14 GP 7-4-3 17 pts
- Washington 13 GP 6-4-3 15 pts
- Pittsburgh 13 GP 7-5-1 15 pts
- Rangers 13 GP 4-6-3 11 pts
- New Jersey 9 GP 4-3-2 10 pts
- Buffalo 11 GP 4-5-2 10 pts
The challenge for the Rangers is keeping pace with the teams above them. Pittsburgh is doing it the right way, coming back when trailing and taking six games to overtime and winning five times. The beauty of the divisional play is a winning streak will put the Rangers back in the playoff picture. There are still 43 games to play.