Per Pat Loenard, Michael Del Zotto (lower body), Dan Girardi (foot), and Darroll Powe (concussion) are all on the ice today for practice. Del Zotto missed Saturday’s game, and Powe had been out since his incidental contact with Matt Hendricks. Girardi didn’t even miss a game. Still convinced he’s an alien.
Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, and Arron Asham are not at practice.
According to Renaud Lavoie of RDS, Max Pacioretty will not be suspended or disciplined of any form for his hit on Ryan McDonagh during last night’s 3-0 defeat in Montreal. At this point Brendan Shannahan has not released his customary videos explaining his thought process to today’s events.
Here’s what we know.
There was a lot going on today in Rangerland, and there may be some significant roster changes for tonight’s game. Per Andrew Gross, the Rangers are dealing with the following injuries/lineup changes:
I think that sums it up at the moment. There’s a lot going on tonight.
Update 1:30pm: Per Andrew Gross, Nash will not travel with the team to Ottawa, which means both Kreider and Mashinter will play tomorrow. Gross adds that Nash may travel with the team to Montreal this weekend.
Original Post: There was a lot of panic in Rangerland yesterday when Rick Nash was a last-minute scratch due to an undisclosed injury. This is the same injury that caused him to miss the Season Subscriber Forum last week, but didn’t prevent him from playing 20 minutes in the 2-1 victory over Washington. The Rangers haven’t released any details on the injury.
Reading between the lines of the Rangers (lack of) roster moves: Nash is still questionable for tomorrow’s game against Ottawa, as the Rangers have not sent Chris Kreider nor Brandon Mashinter back to the Connecticut Whale of the AHL for their game tonight.
Last night, Darroll Powe suffered a very unfortunate injury when he collided with Matt Hendricks early in the second period. The collision left both players shaken up, but Powe landed awkwardly on his head and was clearly knocked unconscious for a brief period. From the video, you can tell that once Powe came to, he was glassy-eyed and unable to skate under his own power. Although this is unconfirmed, that likely means he suffered a concussion.
While the injury may seem like one that the Rangers can readily handle, let’s remember that the depth on the fourth line was a serious issue before the Rangers dealt Mike Rupp for Powe. This deals a relatively big blow to the Rangers depth and their penalty killing, as Powe had been one of the Rangers most used penalty killers upon his arrival in New York.
It was only a matter of time before we heard the bad news on Darroll Powe, who took a nasty fall yesterday after a collision with Matt Hendricks. Powe has been placed on IR (note: not LTIR) and the Rangers have recalled Brandon Mashinter from Connecticut to replace him on the roster.
It will be interesting to see how coach John Tortorella deploys Mashinter –likely on the fourth line in place of Powe– while also handling Chris Kreider, who is still with the club. Many assumed Kreider would get out of the press box, but that may not be the case.
During the second period, Ranger forward Darroll Powe collided with Matt Hendricks of the Caps, after which Powe appeared to be knocked out cold and was helped off the ice. Neither player saw each other, and it’s just an unfortunate accident. Powe also appeared to land on his head and appeared woozy and glassy-eyed while down on the ice.
I doubt Powe will return for the rest of tonight’s game.
Per Bob McKenzie, captain Ryan Callahan is out 10-14 days with a shoulder subluxation, which means that Cally’s shoulder popped out of its socket real fast, then settled back in. This could have been a lot worse, but the Rangers will definitely miss Cally while he is out for those two weeks.
While he’s out, expect Carl Hagelin and Taylor Pyatt to get a lot of time with Derek Stepan.
If you weren’t watching the game, then you missed the big news that captain Ryan Callahan left the game in the third period with an apparent left shoulder injury. Following a scrum with Max Talbot, Cally headed straight to the locker room and pointed at his left shoulder. The scrum itself didn’t involve any punches, it just looks like it was tugged awkwardly by Talbot.
No word yet on the severity of the injury.
Marek Hrivik, who many speculated would get a long look at camp (well, under normal camp) is out with a concussion. This could be one of the reasons why Hrivik may not be invited to the Rangers mini-camp this year. However with camps set to occur during the AHL season, and lasting only a week, it is unlikely that the Rangers would call up the majority of Connecticut’s roster. Chris Kreider and Matt Gilroy are the only two who have left the Whale at the moment, and there’s no reason to believe anyone else will leave for mini camp.
In other news, the Whale have officially signed forward Shayne Wiebe to an AHL contract. Wiebe had been with the Whale on a PTO since November 17, when he was called up from the Greenville Road Warriors. In 14 games since his call up, Wiebe has a pair of assists and two PIMs. While with the Road Warriors, Wiebe had a line of 7-5-12 and 10 PIMs in 12 games.
