Kakko on IR with upper-body injury
Gerard Gallant indicated that the Rangers could be without Kaapo Kakko for quite some time as the Finnish winger battles an undisclosed upper-body injury that has apparently been lingering.
After he was a late scratch despite taking warm-ups prior to Saturday’s eventual win over the Coyotes, Kakko was officially put on injured reserve on Monday and is considered “week-toweek,” according to Gallant.
“Kaapo is not going to play for a little bit here,” the head coach said before the Rangers defeated the Kings 3-2 in a shootout Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
It sounded like Filip Chytil, who suffered a lower-body injury and missed the final two periods Saturday, won’t be out as long as Kakko. Chytil is labeled as “dayto-day” and didn’t play Monday.
Forward Morgan Barron was recalled from the taxi squad, while defenseman Jarred Tinordi took the Cornell product’s place on the reserve unit.
Gallant said he had considered rolling with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, while reverting to the line rotations he utilized when Chytil went down on Saturday. The coach ultimately stuck with his usual lineup of 12 forwards and six defensemen.
“Well if you got somebody banged up back there,” Gallant said of the benefits of playing seven defensemen. “That’s what we think about all the time. I like playing six D, [assistant coach Gord] Murphy likes playing six D. But if you got somebody banged up, you’re not sure, then you play seven D.
“The three lines worked pretty good the other night, that rotation. Can’t do that all year, obviously you’ll tire your players out, so short-term stuff.”
The banged-up defenseman turned out to be Patrik Nemeth, who was scratched.
Gallant went with the star-studded top line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin to start, but ended up rearranging his top six to get something going offensively. His decision to bump Panarin back down to the wing of Ryan Strome, with Barclay Goodrow on the right, paid off when the trio produced the gametying goal in the third period.
➤ Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin made 34 saves, coming up with saves on the Kings’ Adrian Kempe, Viktor Arvidsson, Alex Iafallo and Arthur Kaliyev in the shootout.
➤ Monday’s game took a turn when former Blueshirt Brendan Lemieux bashed Ryan Lindgren between the numbers and into the boards with less than four minutes left in the first period.
Lindgren and the rest of the Rangers on the ice went after Lemieux, who was ultimately assessed a five-minute boarding major and a game misconduct to prematurely end his first night back at the Garden. After Lindgren’s retaliatory cross-checking penalty expired, the Rangers went to work on the power play.
Hemming the Kings in their zone and firing off shot after shot, Adam Fox then connected with Kreider right on the doorstep with less than two seconds left in the period to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead heading into the second.