New York Rangers Daily: More decisions for Blueshirts; Linus Ullmark returns for Senators
All in all, Tuesday night was not the greatest one for the New York Rangers and their Stanley Cup Playoff hopes. Pretty much everyone ahead of them in the playoff race won, they dropped to 13th in the Eastern Conference and are now six points out of the second wild card and seven in arrears of the top wild-card spot.
So, yeah, that makes their game against the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday a real big one. That’s a team ahead of them in the standings, that they just lost to Saturday, and most of the other teams in the East are not playing.
It’s like a tennis match every day in the conference. Your serve Rangers.
There are three games in four nights before the Rangers hit the 4 Nations break. They could easily run the table against the Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets. Then again, these are the 2024-25 New York Rangers, so all bets are off. But, yes, three wins is very doable here.
As everyone catches their breath during the break, general manager Chris Drury must figure out what to do next. He made his big move, of course, landing J.T. Miller last week. But if Mika Zibanejad remains on the wing, the Rangers likely need a third-line center. With Adam Edstrom’s long-term injury, they probably need another fourth-line wing, or another depth forward. And a decision must be made on pending UFA Ryan Lindgren: trade him ahead of the deadline (meaning they must acquire another defenseman), keep him and let him walk at season’s end or keep him and look to sign him to a shorter-term, team-friendly contract.
Those are just some of the topics and scenarios I discussed with Rangers beat reporter Colin Stephenson of Newsday on the latest Rink Rap podcast presented by Forever Blueshirts. Make sure to subscribe and give it a listen.
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New York Rangers news
No, it’s not Igor Shesterkin nor Artemi Panarin nor Adam Fox. But fourth-line wing Adam Edstrom is out at least 2.5 months, perhaps up to 3.5 months, with a lower-body injury. And that’s still a pretty big deal for the Rangers.
The Rangers had two days off, but now begins a busy and important stretch of three games in four nights. Here’s a close look at the Rangers upcoming schedule.
The Hartford Wolf Pack have lost six in a row, and we take a close look at why they’re struggling so much in our latest weekly column. We also examine Alex Belzile’s strong season for the Wolf Pack.
Here’s a cool story on former Rangers goalie prospect Brandon Halverson, drafted ahead of Igor Shesterkin in 2014, played one NHL game, just landed a two-year contract with the Lightning and dressed as Andrei Vasilevskiy’s backup on Tuesday.
NHL news
We reported on Kirill Marchenko sidelined indefinitely for the Columbus Blue Jackets with a broken jaw and the Islanders placing star center Mathew Barzal on IR. That’s a big blow each for a pair of Rangers rivals.
Despite all their injuries, the depleted Islanders just keep on winning, this time 2-1 against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday behind Ilya Sorokin’s 33 saves.
Brutal news for the Dallas Stars, a legit Stanley Cup contender. Defenseman Miro Heiskanen had knee surgery and is out month to month.
Linus Ullmark played his first game since Dec. 22 because of a back injury and made 34 saves, but the Ottawa Senators lost 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning, ending their five-game winning streak.
Perhaps worse for the Senators was that forward Shane Pinto sustained an upper-body injury in the first period and didn’t return.
The Bruins warmed up for their MSG visit Wednesday with a 3-0 win against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday. Jeremy Swayman made 33 saves for his third shutout this season.
Former Rangers forward Patrick Kane set an NHL record with his 53rd shootout goal to lead the Detroit Red Wings to their seventh straight win, 5-4 over the Seattle Kraken.
The New Jersey Devils eked out a 3-2 shootout win against the Penguins, but lost defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler to a lower-body injury in the first period.
Thatcher Demko made 25 saves and Filip Chytil had an assist in the Vancouver Canucks’ 3-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Montreal Canadiens moved ahead of the Rangers in the East, scoring three times in the third period, including a short-handed game-winner by Joel Armia, to defeat the San Jose Sharks 4-3.
This time it was backup Eric Comrie with the shutout as the Winnipeg Jets keep sailing along, winning their seventh straight game, 3-0 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Alex Ovechkin is now 17 goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky (894) for most all-time in NHL history. The Great 8 scored into an empty net with one second left to help the Washington Capitals knock off the Florida Panthers 6-3.
Watch Michael Nylander record his second NHL hat trick in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 6-3 road win against the Calgary Flames.
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