The New York Rangers practiced Thursday, trying to shake off a sloppy loss to the Flyers and to prepare for a home game against the top team in the East Division, the Boston Bruins. The big news is the fans will be in the seats at a hockey game at Madison Square Garden for the first time in almost year.
While it will be only about 2,000 fan, you can be sure that they will make enough noise to sound like 20,000. Coach David Quinn said that everyone is looking forward to it. “We’ve got the best fans in the league…as excited as these people are to get into the building, we’re more excited to have them in the building…I know our guys are excited and the fan base is excited for an opportunity to see us play live. we’re more excited for that opportunity that they’re gonna have.”
Alexandar Georgiev will get the start against Boston.
Chytil healing
There was a welcome sight at the practice on Thursday. It was Filip Chytil, skating in practice without a no-contact jersey. It could mean a return to action as soon as Friday against the Bruins.
Coach David Quinn gave an update. “He’s day to day. We’ll see how he feels after today. but it’s really good to get him back out there. Obviously, he was playing pretty good hockey before he got hurt. It’s gonna be good to get him back.”
Chytil had been playing the best hockey of his career when he was injured after only five games and a return to the lineup will be a big boost for the team. Take a look at this goal he scored against the Penguins to see what the team has been missing.
As for the rest of the walking wounded, Quinn had no update on Kaapo Kakko or K’Andre Miller, both out with the COVID-19 protocol and he did say that Jacob Trouba was making progress.
Sloppy penalties
In talking about the Flyers game, Quinn pointed to the eight penalties taken by the Rangers as the primary reason that they lost, especially when most were unnecessary penalties. He did say that the two too many men penalties were only the second and third of the season.
They have actually taken four of those penalties this season, the most of any team in the NHL. They had only four last season in 70 games and 14 the prior season in 82 games. At the rate they are going, in an 82 game season, they would take 18 of those penalties and that is just too many.
The puck into the stands are more excusable and they have taken three of those delay of game penalties. The good news is that they killed all four of those penalties.
Lafrenière’s progress
Wednesday was Alexis Lafrenière’s 17th NHL game. He has scored two goals and has no assists. His plus/minus rating has slipped to -8 and he is averaging 14:33 minutes of ice time. He is averaging about two minutes of power play time per game. He has 23 shots on goal on 40 shot attempts.
At this rate, he is headed for the least productive season for any first overall pick who made the leap to the NHL in his draft year. Even Nail Yakupov, everyone’s yardstick for draft busts scored 17 goals in his lockout shortened rookie season.
The question has to be why is Lafrenière have such a difficult time. It doesn’t help that Tim Stützle of Ottawa, the only other 2020 draftee in the NHL, has five goals and 10 points.
A big factor has to be the fact that the Rangers have Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider on the left wing ahead of Lafrenière. It hasn’t helped that third line center Chytil went down early with an injury before he could build up any chemistry with the rookie.
It certainly isn’t from a lack of ice time. Lafrenière is seventh in the NHL among rookie forwards in average ice time. All indications are that Lafrenière is developing properly and the scoring will come. It is the inflated expectations of the fans that is making his season appear to be a disappointment.
It’s unfortunate and would have been incredibly unpopular, but perhaps the Rangers should have done what the Anaheim Ducks have done with Trevor Zegras. They let him compete at the World Junior Championships where he scored an amazing seven goals and 18 points in seven games. Instead of bring him right to the NHL, they sent the WJC MVP to San Diego in the AHL where he had four goals and nine points in eight games.
They finally brought Zegras up to the NHL over the weekend and he has played two games without a point. In only his second game Wednesday night, they let Zegras take the first shot in their shootout against the Coyotes and he scored. It will be interesting to see how the 19 year old does.
A message from Lundqvist
While the image of Henrik Lundqvist in goal taking shots just over a month after heart surgery was encouraging, Lundqvist sent out a Tweet today that put it in perspective.
Going to the rink this week has been very rewarding. My health is obviously my No.1 priority. It will be months before I can make any decisions regarding my future after more tests/convos with Doctors. The one thing I do know with 100% certainty is that I still love the game.
— Henrik Lundqvist (@HLundqvist) February 25, 2021
The message was clear. Despite the video, he is months away from even deciding if he can play professional hockey again.