Jones & Gettinger recalled, Rangers in Florida & WJC latest

The New York Rangers flew to the Sunshine State Tuesday and it sure looks like they will be resuming their season on Wednesday.  There were still some COVID-related hiccups with the latest the postponement of the Islanders-Red Wings game scheduled for Wednesday.

The NHL also postponed a number of games to be played in Canada, not for health but for financial reasons.  The number of fans allowed into Canadian arenas is limited so the NHL won’t resume games in Canada until they can get more spectators into the seats.

Three NHL games were played Tuesday night so the NHL did get back to work as they had committed to.

As for the Rangers, they boarded their charter to Florida after a brief workout this morning.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Rangers recalled Zac Jones and Tim Gettinger from the Taxi Squad.  The question is whether they will actually get into either of the games in Florida if there are no more COVID-related or injury issues.

With Ryan Lindgren, Jarred Tinordi, Kevin Rooney and Alexandar Georgiev all on the COVID Protocol list, the active roster had only 12 forwards and six defensemen.  Adding Jones and Gettinger gives the Rangers flexibility to fill out the lineup if there is an issue with a player close to game time.

It’s always possible that Gerard Gallant could go with Jones over Patrik Nemeth or Nils Lundkvist and he could use Gettinger in place of Greg McKegg.  We won’t know until game time.

The entire Taxi Squad made the trip to Florida so that means Adam Huska, Matthew Robertson, Jonny Brodzinski and Morgan Barron will be with the team.

The Rangers play Florida and the Panthers got the good news that Aleksander Barkov will be in the lineup for the first time since suffering a lower body injury on December 7.  Getting their Selke Trophy winning center and team captain back will give them a big lift. They will be without leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau along with defenseman Olli Juolevi,  both on the COVID list.

Of course, that’s until both teams are tested tomorrow.

A WJC forfeit

Two Team USA players tested positive and the entire team was put in quarantine. It meant that they had to forfeit their match Tuesday with Switzerland, a game they would have probably won easily.  It will go into the record books as a 1-0 loss.

Ranger forward prospect Brett Berard was supposed to play after a good start in his first game.  He was scoreless, but tied for the team lead in shots with five and played the fifth most minutes among USA forwards.

Team USA is supposed to play Sweden on Wednesday and in order to be able to play, the athletes have to test negative twice in a 24 hour period.  Four players (two who tested positive and their roomates) are in quarantine, but we don’t know who they are.

They normally dress 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies and they have 25 players on their roster so they are now down to 21 players.  If anyone tests positive Wednesday, the team will have play with a reduced roster.  No word on how small the roster can be before the team is not allowed to play by the IIHF.

Will Cuylle assists a wunderkind

In one game featuring a Rangers prospects, Team Canada demolished Austria 11-2, with 64 shots on goal.   Goalie Dylan Garand did not play as the team used Brett Brochu as they try to figure out who their number one goalie will be for the medal round.

Rangers prospect left winger Will Cuylle (#27) did play and he got two assists, both on a sweet feeds to Connor Bedard.   The first goal was on a give-and-go between Bedard and Cuylle.

On the second goal Cuylle carried the puck behind the net and made the pass to Bedard for the tip-in.

Bedard was the star for Canada as the 16-year old had four goals, tying a Canadian WJC record and  becoming only the second 16-year old to get a hat trick for Canada, joining Wayne Gretzky. He then added a fourth goal in the third period (off the feed from Cuylle).  Bedard is cementing his status as the potential top pick in the 2023 draft.

There are three games on Wednesday featuring Rangers prospects.   Finland takes on Czechia at 2pm EST, followed by Canada versus Germany at 7pm EST and the USA vs Sweden at 9:30pm EST. All games will be televised on the NHL Network.