The Rangers will be without Noah Laba and Urho Vaakanainen for the next bit.
Laba, the Blueshirts’ third-line center, and Vaakanainen, a third-pairing defenseman, are week to week with lower- and upper-body injuries, respectively.
Both exited the loss to the Devils on Wednesday early and didn’t travel with the team to Columbus on Thursday to complete the back-to-back.
When asked if neither would need a stint on injured reserve, head coach Mike Sullivan said, “Right now, they’re going to be week to week.”
So in the present, it forced the Blueshirts to continue to adjust. J.T. Miller skated between Conor Sheary and Tye Kartye on the third line again. Taylor Raddysh was bumped up to the line with Vincent Trocheck and Will Cuylle again, too.
And it’ll also force the Blueshirts to pivot on the penalty kill, where Laba had carved out a role during his rookie season in addition to the nine goals and 21 points he has contributed offensively. Vaakanainen, who has appeared in just 33 games, was replaced by Connor Mackey on the third defensive pairing during the Rangers practice in Tarrytown on Saturday.
The absences of Laba and Vaakanainen also marked the latest injury hits the Blueshirts have absorbed this season.
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Miller has been on injured reserve twice. Defenseman Adam Fox logged extended time on long-term injured reserve. Both goaltenders — Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick — have missed games, too.
All of that has resulted in constant shuffling for Sullivan and his combinations. Laba, who also missed three games in early January, and Vaakanainen just forced that all to happen again.
When asked about the Rangers defense recently, and whether they need to improve anything with the possibility for goaltender Dylan Garand to make his NHL debut this week, Sullivan said they’re “capable of being way stingier.”
The Blueshirts have allowed at least four goals in each of their past three losses, a streak that directly followed their run of points in eight of nine games out of the Olympic break.
“I think it starts with the decisions we make with the puck, because if you turn the puck over in the wrong areas of the rink, you don’t take care of the puck, it’s very difficult to get into structure,” Sullivan said. “You chase the game. And so I don’t think we’ve managed the puck nearly as well in the last few games as we were coming out of the break, for example.
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“When we put a stretch of games together where we were winning games, it wasn’t by accident. I think there were certain things that were taking place that were giving us the chance to be competitive.”
Sunday’s game against the Jets starts a stretch where the Rangers will play nine of their next 10 games at home, with the lone road game Wednesday against the Maple Leafs.
Mika Zibanejad will skate in his 999th career game Sunday, and his 1,000th, barring an injury, is set to occur Monday — against his former team in the Senators, too.
He has recorded 10 points across his past seven games.
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