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.
There has a lot of talk about Marian Gaborik and his shoulder, but John Tortorella put all concerns to bed today. Per Steve Zipay, Torts stated that Gaborik is ready to go, and will not miss any of training camp or opening night. Gaborik has been cleared medically for about a month now. This is one area where the lockout benefited the Rangers. A healthy Gaborik gives the Rangers another 40-goal threat in the lineup.
Unfortunately, those who are expecting Michael Sauer back soon are not going to be happy. Word went across Twitter yesterday (sorry, I don’t have an exact link, if someone could provide it would be great) that the young defenseman is not going to be ready for opening night, and likely will not be ready this season. Sauer has been out with post-concussion syndrome for over a year. Sauer suffered the injury following a clean Dion Phaneuf hit, where Sauer’s head hit the boards awkwardly.
The US World Junior Championship preliminary roster was released, and Ranger prospects J.T. Miller –who was on the team last year– and Brady Skjei were named to the initial roster. Miller is expected to make the team, while Skjei will have to work to make the club. Last year’s US team didn’t make it to the medal round, winning just one game in round-robin play.
Miller and Skjei were the only two Ranger prospects named to the 2013 World Junior Championship.
Across the pond, Rick Nash is having some issues staying in the lineup. Nash re-aggravated his groin injury, and will be out for another week. While some may think this is cause for alarm, I think differently. I’m inclined to believe that Nash is just being cautious, and these are injuries that would not keep him out of the lineup in the NHL. Of course, that’s just my opinion.
There have been a few injuries among the Rangers and the prospects over the past few weeks, none of which have really been publicized too much. But it’s worth noting the following guys who have been injured (anything that says current means they are currently battling the injury):
- Rick Nash – shoulder, groin (current)
- Carl Hagelin – shoulder (current)
- Shane McColgan – concussion (current)
- Jesper Fast – shoulder
- Oscar Lindberg – concussion (current)
- Dylan McIlrath – knee (current)
It’s worth noting that none of these injuries are serious. Well, not including the concussions, those are tricky. But the others are just just the typical bumps and bruises that come with playing hockey.
Per Andrey Osadchenko, who covers the KHL, Ryan McDonagh is on his way home, as he has been granted a leave of absence from Barys to deal with personal issues and an injury. Pat Leonard has additional information, noting that the injury is not believed to be serious.
McDonagh would be the third Rangers roster player to suffer a minor injury while playing overseas. Rick Nash suffered a shoulder injury in September, missing a little more than a week with Davos in Switzerland. Carl Hagelin also suffered a shoulder injury a month after Nash. While Hagelin’s injury was also minor, it led to the termination of his deal with Södertälje SK in the second-tier Swedish league HockeyAllsvenskan (s/t to surlysailor for the info/link).
First, I hope that everyone who reads this blog and all of your families are safe. Hurricane Sandy did a number on the tri-state area, and it was by far the worst storm we have ever encountered. I had a close call myself, as a tree that is (was) three feet from my bedroom window snapped, and the top half came crashing down, missing my apartment by about five feet. There was also another tree that was leaning, but did not go down. Both trees have been removed thankfully.
Now back to some semblance of Ranger hockey: Carl Hagelin had a bit of a scare last night, as he took a hit to the shoulder and was removed from the game. It was a precautionary move, but like Rick Nash before him, his shoulder injury is day-to-day.
Additionally, MSG is planning on airing more KHL games on the MSG network as the lockout continues. There will be a total of eight games aired on MSG throughout the month of November:
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