Defenseman Lindgren lost early to upper-body injury

The injuries are piling up for the Rangers.

Defenseman Ryan Lindgren suffered an upper-body injury in the first period Thursday night and did not return for the remainder of the Rangers’ 5-2 loss to the Bruins. It’s unclear exactly when the injury occurred, but it’s a good bet it happened during a retaliatory interference penalty on David Pastrnak, who crashed into Lindgren after the 24-yearold had shoved the Bruins winger into the boards earlier in the period.

Lindgren took at least one more shift after the hit, which gave the Rangers a power play that was ultimately unsuccessful as the Bruins put up two shorthanded shots in comparison to the home team’s zero. He finished with two hits and one blocked shot in 3:09 of ice time.

“He’s day-to-day,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “We’ll know more [Friday].”

The Rangers now have three players working through injuries, with Lindgren joining Filip Chytil (upper-body) and Vitali Kravtsov (upper-body). For a player like Lindgren — who is never not bruised or bloodied — to actually come out of a game, however, is not a good sign.

“If he was able to come back, he would’ve,” said Adam Fox, who is Lindgren’s D partner. “I don’t know what the diagnosis is on him, but obviously, a big loss for us.”

➤ Chytil was sidelined for the sixth straight game despite participating in practice the day before.

“Real close,” Gallant said. “I don’t want to say [he’ll be ready for Sunday against Detroit], but he’s going in the right direction. Everything’s going in the right direction. He skated again [Thursday], so it’s day-to-day, but he’s doing real well.”

➤ Igor Shesterkin made his fourth consecutive start, marking his longest streak of the season.

The Rangers star netminder, who finished with 32 saves, appears to be benefiting from a small run of

games, but the workload hasn’t necessarily been too much to handle. Unlike at the start of last season, the Rangers have been better about limiting opponents’ shot totals. Instead, they’re the ones who have had a high volume of shots in recent games. The Rangers have outshot their opponents in all but four of their first 12 games, including Thursday.