The New York Rangers, off a five-game undefeated West Coast swing, returned home to MSG last night. New York did not face one of the weak sisters of the league, matching up against Carolina, who is expected to contend with New Jersey and last night’s home team for the Metro Division title. In a contest that certainly was a lot grittier and more physical than what you would normally see in the 10th game of the season, the Blueshirts eked out a 2-1 victory.
New York’s win came at a cost, the extent of which is unknown. Adam Fox was hit leg to leg by Sebastian Aho with the contact sure looking specious at best. Aho has a little bit of a history in incidents such as this, which likely also played a part in several Rangers — especially Alexis Lafreniere — looking to exact revenge and a piece of flesh from him. Later in the first, Filip Chytil ran straight into Jesper Fast. While the play looked innocuous, Chytil’s injury history — especially concussion-related — resulted in the team’s number two center being shut down the last two periods of the contest.
Fox has been remarkably healthy since joining the Blueshirts, missing just three games to injury his first four years with the squad. As noted above, the same cannot be said for Chytil. No word yet has been provided on each, as coach Peter Laviolette said post-game that they would both be evaluated today. New York travels Friday to Minnesota; I doubt either will be on that flight.
To provide depth (which will eat away at their available cap space unless either player ends up on Long Term Injured Reserve), the Rangers on Friday called up Jonny Brodzinski. Tyler Pitlick has missed a few games due to injury, though his time in the press box has been due more to Jimmy Vesey taking over the fourth-line right wing spot. Presuming Chytil sits, look for Vincent Trocheck to center the second line in between Artemi Panarin and Lafreniere. Barclay Goodrow should slide up from fourth-line right wing to third-line center, skating with Will Cuylle and Blake Wheeler. If both of these changes happen, Brodzinski will then slot in on the fourth line next to Vesey and Nick Bonino.
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On the blue line, several options exist. One has Laviolette pairing Braden Schneider in Fox’s spot with Ryan Lindgren. This would leave the Jacob Trouba /Â K’Andre Miller duo intact and result in Zac Jones — who slots in the lineup for Fox — next to Erik Gustafsson, who also could replace Fox on the point on the first power play unit.
Another option is to play Gustafsson with Lindgren and Jones with Schneider. What does happen here is the righty/lefty balance — at least for the first two pairs — is thrown a bit off-kilter, but that is the least of the concerns if Fox (who has won one Norris and should be in contention for many more) is sidelined for any extended period of time.