Rangers quiet on Ryan Lindgren's status after injury
Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins is checked by Ryan Lindgren of the New York Rangers during the first period at Madison Square Garden on November 3, 2022. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
The Rangers were off on Friday, and thus did not issue an update on the status of defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who left Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins midway through the first period with an upper-body injury.
So Lindgren’s status for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden is unknown, at least until the team returns to practice Saturday.
When and how Lindgren was injured is uncertain. He had checked Boston’s David Pastrnak into the boards early in the first period and Pastrnak hit him back a moment later, taking a penalty for interference since Lindgren no longer had the puck. Lindgren played two more shifts after that, blasting Patrice Bergeron into the boards on one, before leaving the game with 9:14 remaining in the period.
Lindgren is well known for taking all kinds of hits, suffering cuts to his face from pucks or sticks or whatever, and getting stitched up and returning to the game. So when he didn’t come back for the second period, it was almost a surprise.
“Obviously, if he was able to come back, he would have,’’ Lindgren’s defense partner, Adam Fox, said after the game. “I don’t know what the diagnosis is on him, but obviously, it was a big loss for us.’’
If Lindgren isn’t able to play Sunday, the Rangers would replace him with Libor Hajek. Hajek battled with Zac Jones in the preseason for the sixth defenseman spot, but apparently lost, as Jones has played nine of the Rangers' 12 games (one goal, one assist, two points, four penalty minutes, minus-1 rating), while Hajek has played three (0-0-0, 0 PIM, minus-1).
If coach Gerard Gallant has to put Hajek into the lineup, the next question would be how would the defense pairs be aligned? Assuming assistant coach Gord Murphy leaves the top pair of K’Andre Miller and Jacob Trouba together, then Fox would need to partner with Hajek, Jones or Braden Schneider.
From ability and style-of-play standpoints, Schneider probably would make the most sense to step into Lindgren’s spot among the top two defense pairs. The problem with that is that Schneider is a righthanded shooter, so a partnership of Fox and Schneider would mean having two righthanders together. One of them would have to play out of position, on the left side.
Schneider got into his second NHL fight on Thursday, midway through the second period, after he blasted Boston’s Trent Frederic with a clean body check, and then had to drop the gloves with Frederic’s linemate, A.J. Greer. Even though the hit was clean, Schneider knew he was likely going to have to fight after it.
“I learned that from the last time I hit someone,’’ he said, referring to last season, when he fought the Devils’ Yegor Sharangovich after he’d hit Jesper Boqvist. “There's a bit of a chip on your shoulder, and if you're going to hit a guy who's got the same chip, you're going to have to be ready to go. So, it happens, and I'm happy with the hit, and glad he didn't get hurt, and I didn't get any punches in the face too bad.’’
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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