Rangers' Artemi Panarin scratched vs. Blues with upper-body injury
Artemi Panarin of the Rangers skates against Chicago at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
ST. LOUIS – With the Rangers having lost nine of their last 12 games, and already down defenseman K’Andre Miller, things went from bad to worse on Sunday as they were without their leading scorer, Artemi Panarin, against the Blues. The team said he has an upper-body injury and is day-to-day.
In addition, coach Peter Laviolette, desperate to do something, anything, to change the team’s fortunes, scratched forward Kaapo Kakko, who had been having one of his best seasons and had been part of the team’s most consistent forward line.
Panarin leads the team with 15 goals and 36 points. He had been spotted in the locker room in recent days with an ice pack on his shoulder, and in Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, he played a season-low 14 minutes and 22 seconds.
With Panarin and Kakko (four goals, 10 assists, plus-10) not in the lineup, the forward lines were radically different than they have been. Filip Chytil, normally the third-line center, centered a top line between wingers Alexis Lafreniere and Will Cuylle; Vincent Trocheck skated between Jonny Brodzinski and Reilly Smith; Mika Zibanejad centered a third line between Jimmy Vesey and rookie Brett Berard, and Chris Kreider was dropped to the fourth line with Sam Carrick and rookie Adam Edstrom.
Meanwhile, veteran Chad Ruhwedel entered the lineup at defense, replacing rookie Victor Mancini, who was a minus-3 on Saturday.
In his pre-game media briefing, Laviolette was asked if he had any lineup changes. He didn’t reveal any, but hinted there might be.
“We're working through some things, just based on the game yesterday, and some of the things that went on,’’ he said.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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