Sorry there was no recap for whatever that was in Montreal Saturday night. I’m pretty sure we all want to forget it happened so we’ll just leave it at that.
One thing I will mention is my hope for that game was that the Rangers would score a goal and not get injured. One out of two isn’t bad, although I would’ve preferred they got shutout if that was the case. Still waiting to hear an update on Antti Raanta but he wasn’t at practice today and Magnus Hellberg was recalled. None of this means the news will be bad as he did finish the first period. But it probably means he won’t be around for at least a couple of games. If I had to guess, I’m going with groin injury.
UPDATE:
Not skating today-Raanta (lower body) expected to be sidelined 7 to 10 days. Staal & Puempel skated prior to practice (concussion protocol).
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 16, 2017
That’s basically what I expected for Raanta. Not great since the Rangers play 5 games in next 10 days leading to All Star break, but it could be a lot worse. And the second part of that tweet is really good news as didn’t expect either of them to be skating yet.
In order to make that recall, Marek Hrivik was placed on waivers yesterday. Not surprisingly he cleared today and was sent back to Hartford. Did Hrivik do anything wrong during his time with the Rangers? No. But did he do anything to stand out and prove he deserved a spot over other players? Not really. That’s why he was sent back.
But the Rangers are getting healthy up front which means another player has to come out. From the looks of practice today, it sounds like that player will be Oscar Lindberg.
Kreider-Stepan-Zucc, Nash-Zibanejad-Buchnevich, Grabner-Hayes-Miller, Vesey-Pirri-Fast. Hrivik cleared waivers, likely on way to AHL. #NYR
— Brett Cyrgalis (@BrettCyrgalis) January 16, 2017
I’m honestly not surprised as I mentioned last week it would likely be him or Pirri. The issue for Lindberg is he’s a penalty killer and the Rangers have a bunch of those. Pirri plays on the power play and while the power play hasn’t been great (other than a miraculous four seconds on Saturday night), there aren’t many other options to put out there. Also doesn’t help that a center is returning and Lindberg is better in the middle.
In regards to that power play, and the clear other issues at hand, we’ll just leave all that for another day.
(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
