The Rangers return to action tonight against the Panthers. After losing 4-1 to Calgary on Sunday, at practice yesterday, New York worked on being quicker with shooting the puck, trying to avoid the slight delays in approach and extra stickhandling that coach David Quinn believes has been a factor in the team’s inability to score. Changing a player’s practices that has built up throughout their career will be difficult, so this will be an interesting test case to see if modifications are feasible.
Quinn:
Coach Quinn talks about what #NYR worked on in today's practice, Georgiev getting in net against Florida and updates on Freddy, Beleskey and Boo. pic.twitter.com/7vqHtZZJa5
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 22, 2018
In an attempt to generate offense, Mats Zuccarello moved up to the top line with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. The second line now is Filip Chytil, Kevin Hayes and Pavel Buchnevich, which is a trio I am looking forward to seeing together. Jesper Fast, who was skating on the top line, dropped to the third line with Jimmy Vesey and Brett Howden, though we may see Quickie on the second line, as he played there as well Monday, with Buchnevich on the third. Cody McLeod looks as if he’ll be staying in for a second consecutive game, with Ryan Spooner — a healthy scratch Sunday — apparently coming back in to play with McLeod and Vlad Namestnikov on the fourth line, resulting in Vinni Lettieri as the scratched extra forward.
On the blue line, the pairings yesterday were Brady Skjei-Adam McQuaid, Marc Staal-Neal Pionk and Brendan Smith-Kevin Shattenkirk. This is a slight tweak from Sunday, when the duos were Skjei-Smith, Staal-Shattenkirk and McQuiad-Pionk. The extra defenseman is Anthony DeAngelo, who will be a healthy scratch again. Quinn has told ADA what he wants to see, and that includes practice, on the ice, which makes his return date to the lineup uncertain.
Defenseman Fredrik Claesson, who sat out Sunday’s game because of an upper-body injury suffered last Wednesday against Washington that initially was not considered serious, will miss two to three weeks. If the Rangers put Claesson on injured reserve, which is expected, they could activate Matt Beleskey, who would require waivers to be sent down to Hartford, from IR. Beleskey, sidelined with a separated shoulder suffered late in training camp, has been practicing with the team and may join the squad on their upcoming four-game road trip. If he is ready to go, I would expect Beleskey in for either McLeod, hopeful, or Spooner/Lettieri, depending on it McLeod if scratched. In addition, Boo Nieves, who has been out with a concussion, practiced with the red no-contact jersey Monday. He is not yet ready to practice fully but is inching closer.
With 2018-19 a rebuild season and Chytil scuffling at this level, much of the chatter has centered on whether he will send down before hitting the 10-games played mark, potentially allowing his ELC to slide if he remained down the rest of the season. Per Larry Brooks’ conversation with GM Jeff Gorton that appears not to be the case. Now Gorton didn’t explicitly say this won’t happen, but his remarks seem to indicate that Chytil is here to stay, at least for now, and Lias Andersson, currently at Hartford, will be up at some point, obviating the possibility of his ELC sliding.
Chytil: “The contract slide hasn’t been a focus of ours,… the Rangers general manager told The Post before Monday’s practice session. “We’re not thinking about Hartford for Filip. We think he’s in the right place.…Andersson “Lias is playing well,… Gorton said. “At this point, we want him in a place where he’s playing major minutes in all situations. He’s getting about 20:00 a night there. I wouldn’t be comfortable with him getting seven or eight minutes a night here.
“As the year goes on, certainly it’s something we’ll be monitoring.…
Arguments can be made on both sides of the equation. Chytil staying and learning at this level might accelerate his development, though New York will have to make sure he isn’t discouraged if his struggles continue. On the flip side, sending him down, allowing him to play 20+ minutes in the top-six and top PP unit while also keeping him on his ELC is a very attractive option for a team looking to the future. For now though, all signs point to Chytil staying. I just hope he doesn’t hit the 10 or 11-game mark and then they send him, since that would be incredibly foolish.