New York Rangers

Game 69: NYR-DET, Hank out 2-3 weeks, Raanta in, Nash/Grabner back
March 12, 2017, 11:48 AM ET [91 Comments]
Jan Levine
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It's been an interesting 72 hours or so in Rangers land. First, it was announced that Henrik Lundqvist would miss the game against Carolina with a lower-body injury that seemed to come out of nowhere. Same can be said about Rick Nash, who was sidelined with an upper-body injury he has been battling for a while. In the game, the constant inconsistency of the officials reared its ugly head in the loss to Carolina on the - lets tag it - questionable call on the contact with Antti Raanta. In that game, coach Alain Vigneault said Pavel Buchnevich for Tanner Glass in the last few minutes with New York down a goal. Yesterday, it was announced that Lundqvist will miss 2-3 weeks with the injury, which is to his hip, while Nash and Michael Grabner, out with his own hip injury, are both expected to play today against Detroit.

Lundqvist said yesterday that he knew the exact moment that he was hurt in the first period against the Panthers, saying it was “a save there where my body was going one way, my leg the other way, and I had an impact on my hip." The below video has a few moments when it could have occurred. The first is around the 2:30 mark, where his body contorted in a manner consistent with the injury. The other could have been at the 3:05 mark. The injury occurred in the first period but Lundqvist remained in the game and made 36 saves the final two periods.



It's now Raanta time, supported by Magnus Hellberg. New York has all of their next eight games over the next two weeks being part of back-to-back sets — including when the Blueshirts play host to the Lightning at the Garden on Monday night — leaving Alain Vigneault a major decision as to when to play Hellberg. It sounds as if Raanta will be ridden hard over the next few weeks. But with a 14 point lead in the first Wild Card spot over the Maple Leafs, the Rangers do have some wiggle room here.

The Rangers are four points behind the Blue Jackets and six behind the Penguins, each of whom have a game in hand. With just 14 games remaining, the likelihood of moving up in the standings in remote. Plus, as has been postulated by many, avoiding the gauntlet that is the Metro in the playoffs would be wise. That not to say facing Ottawa or Montreal in the first round and one or the other and Boston in the second will be a walk in the park, especially seeing how each team has played against the Rangers, but it's a mildly easier route to take.

One unsaid aspect is that if Raanta plays, his value in the expansion draft rises. We - or at least I - hope that New York could find a way to keep Raanta, but a strong 2-3 week run as the #1 on top of what he has done already will solidify his status as probably one of the top goalies available. That will mean the cost to keep him in terms of a pick or player will rise, especially factoring in his low salary compared to production.

Coming into the season the goal was to play Lundqvist 55-58 games. His hot streak last month coupled with Raanta's injury resulted in Lundqvist playing more games than expected. He is now at 51 games played. New York has a game against LA on March 25 with a contest versus Anaheim the following day. After the team returns from California following a game in San Jose on March 28, there are just five games remaining on the regular-season schedule, the finale being on April 9 at home against the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins. Lundqvist believes he could be back on March 25. If that occurs, he likely will play six of the next eight games, leaving him at 57 and fresh for the playoffs

With Nash and Grabner likely back, AV was able to reunite some old forward lines, with the Grabner-Kevin Hayes-J.T. Miller unit working together at practice, as well as the Buchnevich-Mika Zibanejad-Nash line. That kept together the Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello line, and created a mosh-mash fourth line of Glass-Oscar Lindberg-Jimmy Vesey. As a result, Brandon Pirri and Matt Puempel will sit, which is how it should work. When Jesper Fast returns In about week, it will be interesting to see who sits among Glass, Buchnevich and Vesey, with the fear of many it won't be Glass.

More to come on the Raanta play and sitting Buch for Glass.