New York Post

AV hints at getting his regulars back on ice

- By BRETT CYRGALIS

OTTAWA, Ontario — It seems as if Alain Vigneault has had enough of watching the Rangers’ B-team. The coach implied some regulars are going to rejoin the lineup for Sunday’s regular-season finale at the Garden against the Penguins after resting for the past week.

“That’s a possibilit­y,” Vigneault said with a knowing smile after his team lost its second straight, a 3-1 defeat to the Senators on Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Center.

Among the seven regulars to sit was cap- tain Ryan McDonagh, who missed a fourth straight game with a minor, undisclose­d injury, but who has been practicing and declared himself ready for the first game of the playoffs at Montreal, likely to be Wednesday.

Even before the game, Vigneault did not rule out McDonagh playing on Sunday.

Rookie defenseman Brady Skjei was back in the lineup and played 22:21 after sit- ting out Wednesday’s 2-0 loss at Washington.

Winger Tanner Glass played in his third straight game and got into a first-period fight with Matt Borowiecki after the Senator initiated an ugly knee-on-knee hit to Rangers rookie forward Pavel Buchnevich, somehow unpenalize­d, but not causing any damage.

Glass’ straight-line and hard-nosed style looks to be ready for the postseason, but Vigneault was not ready to make any declaratio­ns about the playoff lineup.

“Obviously there are a couple things we’re looking at right now,” Vigneault said, “but we’ll deal with that on Monday.”

Taylor Beck played his first game as a Ranger, having been called up Friday afternoon after a terrific season in the AHL. The 25-year-old was obtained in a deadline trade with the Oilers, having also played two games for the Islanders last season.

Beck skated on a line with Jimmy Vesey and Brandon Pirri and registered one shot on net in four attempts in 12:31 of ice time.

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