McDonagh out, opening chances for defensemen
Just when the Rangers were starting to find their game, winning seven of their last nine contests, crawling out of that large hole they dug for themselves, comes this: Ryan McDonagh, their most valuable player not named Henrik Lundqvist, their captain, will miss Wednesday’s game against the Hurricanes.
The Rangers have termed it an abdominal strain, and offered very few details. McDonagh didn’t practice Tuesday, and won’t even travel with the team to Raleigh, N.C. He will see team doctors, and more information will be offered Wednesday, according to Rangers coach Alain Vigneault. McDonagh’s occasional absence from practices this year, described as “maintenance days,” were the result of the abdominal strain he’s now dealing with.
“It’s something that has been there for a little bit, doesn’t seem to be getting better right now,” Vigneault said. “So we just want to check it out. I’ll have more for you tomorrow.”
When asked if McDonagh would be out for longer than a game, Vigneault said he had “no idea.”
“I just know it’s been bothering him ,” the coach said. “It’s been lingering a little bit. We want to double check things.”
Steven K amp fer, a healthy scratch the last two games, will replace McDonagh in the lineup. Vigneault will keep the Brady Skjei-Kevin Shattenkirk pairing together, and pair Kampfer with Marc Staal, and Brendan Smith with Nick Holden.
“[McDonagh] plays anywhere from 22 minutes to 28 minutes depending on the game, and they are important minutes,” Vigneault said. “So many guys are always looking to get more minutes, and here’s an opportunity to play more minutes. I’m expecting our ‘ D’ group, as a group here, to step up, and be good defensively, and good with the puck, and to make the plays we need to make.”
It would be a good time for Smith, signed to a four-year, $17.4 million deal this summer after coming over to the Rangers from the Red Wings in a tradedeadline deal, to emerge after a shoddy start. He dressed in just 11 of the team’s first 19 games, but did appear in the last two contests — after he was a healthy scratch for the previous six — performing well. But there is no replacing McDonagh, a two-time All-Star with 12 assists and a plus-6 rating in 21 games this season.
“Huge void when he’s out of the lineup,” Shattenkirk said. “It’s not just one guy who has to step in there and fill the role. It’s going to be everyone. He plays so many roles on this team that each guy is going to be asked at different times to carry that, and we have a lot of capable bodies.”
It comes on the heels of arguably the Rangers’ best defensive performance of the year, a 3-0 shutout of the Senators when Lundqvist saw only 20 shots. Now, without their captain and ace defenseman, the Rangers (10-9-2, 22 points) will face a hot opponent in the Hurricanes, who have won five of their last seven games and feature a group of young, speedy and skilled players such as Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho.
“It’s never a good time to lose your captain,” Lundqvist said. “It’s never a good time to lose anybody. But it’s part of the game. It happens. We just have to make the most of it here, and make sure the guys that do get that extra playing time, they’re on top of it.”
The Rangers are going to keep riding Henrik Lundqvist. He will make his 10th consecutive start in net Wednesday against the Hurricanes after recording his second shutout of the season in Sunday’s 2-0 win over the Senators. Over his last eight games, he’s notched a .926 save percentage and 2.32 goals-against average.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I think the schedule’s been good to us. We haven’t traveled too much.”