New York Rangers Daily: No sympathy for Blueshirts; Canucks contract talks ‘frustrating’ Brock Boeser
Adam Fox is on injured reserve and could be out a while. K’Andre Miller could be sidelined too. Chris Kreider has missed two games with an upper-body issue and been hampered by a bad back all season.
Guess what, New York Rangers? Nobody in the NHL cares about your issues.
Sympathy? Yeah, right. Not getting any. Not outside the hand-wringing from a rightfully jittery a fan base, that is.
Just look at the teams they’re battling with for a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. The Boston Bruins have missed stud defenseman Hampus Lindholm pretty much all season and he’s not likely to return. Charlie McAvoy has now joined Lindholm on the sidelines. The Ottawa Senators? They haven’t made the playoffs the past seven seasons and are without three key forwards, including dynamic captain Brady Tkachuk. It’s been eight straight years out of the postseason for the Detroit Red Wings, who just lost key depth forward Andrew Copp for the rest of the season.
And listen, there’s always the Columbus Blue Jackets. Until the other night, they played all season without captain Boone Jenner and for a long stretch without Sean Monahan and some without Kirill Marchenko. All of this after Johnny Gaudreau was tragically killed in a biking accident last summer.
So, no, no one around the League really cares that the Rangers are scrambling a bit here ahead of the March 7 trade deadline because they could be missing their top two defensemen — sub-optimal for any team, much less a defensively challenged one like the Blueshirts.
Time for Zac Jones to prove he’s worth the opportunity that presents itself. Time for Chris Drury to fortify the roster if there’s a long-term issue here that needs to be addressed with the Fox and Miller absences. Time for the Rangers to actually compete for 60 minutes every night, even with a depleted lineup — something they’ve failed to do even when completely healthy much of this season.
A Miller update should come Thursday, along with practice. Then the Rangers host the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. It’s time to see what these Rangers are made of.
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New York Rangers news
Here’s the latest about Fox being placed on IR by the Rangers, and Matthew Robertson recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League.
No matter the injury status of Fox and Miller, our Tom Castro contends that the Rangers should approach the NHL Trade Deadline with an eye focused on the near future and not so much hoping on a Stanley Cup run this spring.
Here are our three Rangers takeaways from the 5-1 win against the Islanders on Tuesday, including solid contributions from the new look fourth line of Jonny Brodzinski, Matt Rempe and Brennan Othmann.
Speaking of the fourth line, they drew praise for playing a “smart game” for the Rangers on Tuesday.
NHL news
The Islanders expect that top defenseman Noah Dobson will return Thursday against the Boston Bruins after missing 11 games with a lower-body injury.
Brock Boeser called contract negotiations with the Vancouver Canucks “frustrating.” The pending UFA forward could be traded ahead of the March 7 deadline.
Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill shot down rumors that they would trade for Erik Karlsson of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Speaking of the spiraling Penguins, they placed veteran forward Matt Nieto on waivers.
Travis Dermott is back with the Edmonton Oilers. They claimed him off waivers from the Minnesota Wild, after losing him the same way to the Wild earlier in the season.
Chris Tanev likely won’t play against the Rangers on Friday. The Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman is day to day with an upper-body injury.
Roman Josi is not expected to play Thursday when the Nashville Predators face off against the Winnipeg Jets. The Predators’ captain is day to day with an upper-body injury sustained when checked from behind by Sam Bennett of the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
The Jets extended their franchise-record winning streak to 11 games, defeating the Ottawa Senators 4-1. Ottawa has lost five in a row.
Valeri Nichushkin had five shots on goal and logged 17:46 TOI for the Colorado Avalanche, playing his first game in two months after a lower-body injury. The Avalanche hammered the New Jersey Devils 5-1.
Quinn Hughes returned from injury and had an assist on the game-winning goal when the Canucks defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in overtime.
Watch Conor Garland score at 4:26 of OT to lift the Canucks to a much-needed win.
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