The Rangers lost their second straight, falling 3-2 in the shootout to Florida on Sunday. That loss took on less importance to other events on the ice, as Mika Zibanejad will be out 6-8 weeks after suffering a broken left fibula when he crashed into the boards behind the net. New York gets no time to nurse their wounds; they head to Pittsburgh to play the Penguins tonight.
Here is the video of the injury:
No blame, no fault, just unlucky, as Zib was a bit off balance as he chased the puck and slid into the boards feet first. Watching the video, you can see how his leg buckles following contact. I thought it would be an ankle or fibula injury, with a fibula possibly being the better of the two due to all ligaments around the ankle that possibly also could have been damaged, sidelining him longer.
As I tweeted last night, no Zib really hurts #NYR. If no Buch, who is to have an MRI today for his back, the lines could be:
Give Hayes the chance to see more ice time in all situations. Move Grabner up to create speed alongside Hayes and Zucc. Leave the second line together. Slide Pirri up and have him between a pair of grinding wingers, who have a bit of speed and can create. For now, shift Lindberg to wing and use the fourth line as more of a checking line, which sees less ice time than the other three. If Lindberg, who is still scraping off the rust after missing time due to his offseason hip surgery, still isn't ready to contribute and Buch is sidelined a while, call up Nieves or Hrivik or Jensen, the latter two if sticking with the four centers noted above, and insert him on the fourth line.
One of the hallmarks of this team early on was the ability to roll four lines. Depth was the main reason for that. Now, that depth is tested. Losing Zib leaves a big hole, as he can do everything while seeing top line minutes. AV has to be smart juggling the lines and assigning ice time. That depth now will be tested.
Last night, you could almost see that loss coming. New York grabbed a 1-0 lead on a snap shot, top shelf by Chris Kreider. The Rangers had 23 seconds of 5-on-3 play and 3:37 of consecutive power play time but were unable to score. James Reimer, after allowing Kreider's tally, stoned the Rangers the rest of the period. The Blueshirts came out of the first period with a 13-4 shot advantage and 1-0 lead but they missed an opportunity to grab control of the game.
In the second, the Rangers went on the power play with a chance to extend the lead. But poor communication and passing by the second unit ended up with Florida on the man-advantage after Brady Skjei covered the puck with his glove. Keith Yandle evened the score with his first of the glove on a blast just inside the post past a screened Henrik Lundqvist. Hank never saw the shot and despite some excellent play from him as well during the early parts of the game, the score was tied at one. That's where it stood after the second period despite the Rangers leading 23-14 in shots but Florida seemed to be carrying play.
In the third, strong work led to the Rangers' second goal. Jimmy Vesey and Mats Zuccarello cuddled in the zone with Vesey feeding Zucc, who put the puck towards the net. Skjei was in the crease area while Zibanejad was tied up with Aaron Ekblad to right of the goal. The puck hit off Zib's skate, as he turned the skate but didn't have a distinct kicking motion, past Reimer. New York almost added to the lead, but a possibly blown call, where the officials ruled that Dan Girardi did not keep the puck in the zone, though it looked like he did, negated a goal.
Florida came back to tie it. A seemingly innocuous play, which was aided by the Rangers changing personnel and unable to get to the line, allowing Florida to keep the puck in, resulted in the goal. Ekblad took a shot that Lundqvist had completely lined up to stop with no traffic in front of him. But J.T. Miller kind of halfway went to block the shot, resulting in it hitting off him, changing direction and deflecting straight down to bounce past Lundqvist to tie the game. I get the Rangers still like to and will block shots. But that was a situation where it was totally unnecessary and resulted in a goal against that never should have occurred.
One other note, the ice overall stunk, as the puck was bouncing all over the place. The comparisons to the Barclays Center are appropriate. But this one is on Dolan and the NBA/NHL schedulers. Anytime you have an NBA at noon and then have a quick same day turnaround to hockey, the ice will always be choppy. Find a way not to do this, since we have seen the play suffers dramatically because of the poor ice surface.
In overtime, Florida dominated action with Lundqvist making some nice saves. New York had a golden chance but didn't score. A nice st play off the faceoff, where Miller won it, Ryan McDonagh picks up the puck and Miller spins to the net, left JT open in front. His shot went into Reimer, who made the save, but Miller had most of the net short side open if he was able to put there. In the shootout, Zucc stopped five hole, Vincent Trocheck scores five hole, Brandon Pirri stoned and Aleksander Barkov channels Peter Forsberg with Lundqvist not able to fully stop the puck and it trickled just over the line to win the game.
This was the eighth time in nine games the Rangers lost the possession battle 5-on-5. In addition, it was the team's first two-game losing streak of the season. New York also failed to score three or more goals for the second straight night. We all knew the offense would dry up slightly eventually. That's where the D has to be solid and I thought Florida carried play most of the last two periods, pinning the D in deep and restricting the Rangers offensive attack.
With Zib out and Buch possibly out, the D needs to step up. As I wrote the last two days, please put Skjei back with Marc Staal and Nick Holden with Kevin Klein. I also advocate moving Skjei up to play with McD and put G on the third line with Klein or maybe Holden. It's possible Adam Clendening gets back in tonight on the tail end of the back-to-back. If he does, his placement will depend on who sits. If it's G, Clendening could be paired with McD, or if Skjei moves up, then with Staal or Klein. If it's Klein, then Clendening may just replace him with Skjei, but that all depends on how AV shuffles the pairings.
Big tests tonight and then Wednesday against the Penguins.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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