The New York Rangers begin their pre-Olympics playoff push (or tank)without the injured Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin on Thursday. A red-hot Buffalo squad – which today includes old friend Zac Jones, though he is not dressing – is in town. Wednesday’s practice lines left some fans scratching their heads and others angry as tar.
Wednesday’s practice lineup:
Panarin – Zibanejad – Cuylle
Miller – Trocheck – Brodzinski
Perreault – Dowling – Raddysh
Blidh – Carrick – Rempe
Gavrikov – Schneider
Soucy – Borgen
Vaakanainen – Robertson
Quick
Martin
Alexis Lafreniere missed practice with an illness, but will be in the lineup against the Sabres.. Jonny Brodzinski skated in that slot. The anger bubbling up in many is seeing Gabe Perreault on the third line. The flip side argument is that the coaching staff is still protecting Perreault by keeping him away from difficult defensive matchups, both for and against. But having Perreault skate with Justin Dowling, in with Noah Laba sidelined (Laba did practice in a non-contact red jersey yesterday) and Taylor Raddysh does little to maximize his potential. If Laf is out sick, it behooves coach Mike Sullivan to play Perreault on the second line.
JT Miller, who has been sidelined since December 20 with an upper body injury, practiced Wednesday and is expected back Thursday. He slots back onto the second line next to Vincent Trocheck, keeping Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin together. Will Cuylle remains on the first line, however, I could see Cuylle and Perreault swapping at some point.
Scott Morrow was promoted with Fox sidelined. With New York in scramble mode, for now, Morrow was rotating in Wednesday and the report from the morning skate is that he will play on the bottom pairing with Urho Vaakanainen tonight. Morrow didn’t show that much when he was up initially, but he needs to play consistently to see if he can fix his weaknesses.
Fun start as usual
Bad goal by Quick.
Sell sell sell
Team is brutal. You are going to win with only 3 guys scoring. The whole top 6 + – is a disaster. Not sure what happened to Miller but he fell off a cliff. Not sure what they think Dowling brings to the team. Laffy needs a new team, he is a bust for us. Never to late to tank.
I’m now in the “Trade Panerin, Zib and Laffy” camp. Laff just lacks fire and energy… we saw it years ago in the playoffs and im like dude… be that like 70% of the time and you’ll be successful. Since he inked that deal, he’s lost all drive and passion. I don’t see it on the ice at least.
Rangers were close in the 3rd with some fire, didn’t they outshoot 14-0 at one point? They were given the gift of that 4 min penalty… the goal was a heartbreaker to make it 4-2.