Chytil to skip trip despite practicing

Filip Chytil participated in Rangers practice on Friday and the team was initially feeling encouraged about the center’s status, but he had to come off early and will not make the weekend trip to face Dallas and Arizona.

“Good news, he had a full practice — almost a full practice — but he didn’t feel good at the end,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “We’re gonna be safe and he’s not coming on the trip.”

Chytil, who is dealing with what is believed to be a head injury, has missed two straight games and came off after 11 seconds of ice time Sunday in a 5-1 loss to the Blue Jackets after taking an elbow from Cole Sillinger. Chytil also missed three games last November with a suspected concussion.

The 23-year-old skated on the third line with Barclay Goodrow, Vitali Kravtsov and Julien Gauthier rotating in during practice Friday. It figures that with Chytil out for the next two games, Gauthier — who made his season debut against the Islanders on Wednesday — will get an extended tryout, though Kravtsov is also a possibility for minutes.

Kravtsov, who missed the loss to the Islanders on Wednesday with an upper-body injury, is good to go for this weekend, Gallant said.

➤ The decision between Gauthier and Kravtsov is one of two lineup calls Gallant will need to make this weekend. The other is between Zac Jones and Libor Hajek on the final defense pairing. Jones, a power play specialist, worked on the second fiveon-four unit during practice Friday, but Hajek has been in for each of the last two games.

➤ The Rangers will play their third back-to-back of the month this weekend, which even Gallant — who generally likes playing on consecutive days — admitted was excessive.

“Do I like three in one month to start the year? Probably not,” he said. “Schedule guy will be pissed at me but really, I don’t mind backto-backs cause usually when you get back-to-backs, you get a couple days of rest in between them. But we just haven’t played as well in the back-to-backs right now.”