New York Rangers Daily: Out of Blueshirts hands Tuesday; massive Ryan Hartman suspension
NHL coaches, players and management types will tell you all the time they don’t spend too much energy paying attention to what other teams do, especially on one of their own off days. SO, assuming that’s the case, members of the New York Rangers organization won’t be wearing out their respective streaming devices keeping up with the eight games Tuesday night that affect them on the NHL schedule.
The Rangers don’t play again until Wednesday, when they host the Boston Bruins at MSG. That begins three games in four nights to before the 4 Nations Face-off break arrives. Winning all three is doable. Winning at least two is a must.
They enter Tuesday 12th in the Eastern Conference, five points out of the two wild cards, a point up on the Montreal Canadiens and just two ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers. So, by the end of the night, the Rangers could be back in 13th place and tied with one or two other teams in points.
In addition, the Rangers could be anywhere from five pints to six or seven out of a wild-card spot depending on how the Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lightning and Bruins fare in their games Tuesday.
Listen, these things change by the day, so there really is no reason to fret every game just yet. Bottom line is that the Rangers need to take care of business — not only this week against Boston, Pittsburgh and Columbus — but over the final 30 games on their schedule.
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New York Rangers news
As stated, it is a big week for the Rangers, heading into the two-week break. So, here’s a breakdown of what lies ahead for the Rangers this week.
Speaking of breakdowns — no, we’re not having one here at Forever Blueshirts — but here is a detailed breakdown of the 15 goalies to win 400 NHL games after Jonathan Quick reached the milestone in the Rangers’ 4-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday.
Filip Chytil said he had “so many emotions in my head” after scoring in his Vancouver Canucks debut Sunday, two days after being traded away by the Rangers.
Urho Vaakanainen is the sixth Rangers player named to a roster for the 4 Nations Face-off. He will replace the injured Miro Heiskanen and compete for Finland.
How about Brandon Halverson? The former Rangers goalie prospect — selected ahead of Igor Shesterkin in the 2014 draft — has had a rollercoaster minor-league career. But Halverson just landed a two-year, two-way contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
NHL news
The New York Islanders are ahead of the Rangers in the standings, but we took a dive into their brutal injury situation. One that got worse yesterday with bad news about star forward Mathew Barzal.
NHL Department of Player Safety came down hard on Ryan Hartman and suspended the Minnesota Wild forward 10 games for roughing (read: slamming the head of …) Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle into the ice over the weekend.
Stutzle was in Ottawa’s lineup Monday and had an assist in a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators. The Senators have won five in a row and are just two points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for second in the Atlantic Division.
The news wasn’t all good for the Senators. They found out forward Josh Norris is out weeks with a mid-body injury, sustained over the weekend.
Predators captain Roman Josi became the all-time games played leader in franchise history (957) passing former forward David Legwand.
The Columbus Blue Jackets received some brutal injury news. Forward Kirill Marchenko had surgery on his broken jaw and is out indefinitely.
Watch the Florida Panthers visit the White House, where they were honored by President Trump for winning the Stanley Cup last season.
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