Rangers' Filip Chytil misses Game 4 with illness
Filip Chytil #72 of the New York Rangers skates against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game Three of Round Two of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at PNC Arena on May 09, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Rangers defeated the Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime. Credit: Getty Images
RALEIGH, N.C. — Filip Chytil, who made a surprise return to the Rangers’ lineup for their Game 3 overtime victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, was not in the lineup for Game 4 on Saturday night at PNC Arena. The Rangers said Chytil was suffering from an illness.
Chytil missed the morning skate, and coach Peter Laviolette, in his morning media briefing, said he would be a game-time decision. When the Rangers came to the ice for warm-ups, Chytil was not with them.
Matt Rempe, the player Chytil replaced in Game 3, and Jonny Brodzinski dressed as the Rangers had 13 forwards warm up. Brodzinski got the nod, entering the lineup as the fourth-line right wing. It was his first appearance of the postseason.
“It’s illness,’’ Laviolette said of Chytil in the morning. “He felt great yesterday. Went to the team meal [Friday] and woke up this morning and didn’t feel well.’’
Chytil, 24, missed the final 72 games of the regular season with what never was confirmed by the Rangers as a concussion but almost certainly was. He played the first 10 games of the season but left the game against Carolina on Nov. 2 after an inadvertent collision with Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast.
After more than two months, during which he went to Czechia over New Year’s for a brief period to work with his doctors at home, he appeared poised to make a comeback in late January before suffering a setback. During the NHL All-Star break, the Rangers declared him out for the season.
But he returned to practice with the team April 12 and began ramping up toward a possible return during the past month. He finally made that return in Game 3, playing 12 minutes, 2 seconds in the Rangers’ 3-2 win, and after the game, he said he felt good.
“I feel great. I feel unbelievable,’’ he said with a smile. “It’s the adrenaline that I needed in the last six months. I didn’t have that.’’
Chytil was credited with two hits in the game and was listed as being hit once. And he said the physical contact was good, too.
“It was amazing. It was so good,’’ he said. “I never felt better that somebody hit me or I hit anybody . . . I even got a stick to the face once and I was like, ‘Yeah, give me more.’ I was so happy.’’
Under the NHL’s injury reporting policy, teams are allowed to list injuries as upper-body or lower-body, and the Rangers have never listed Chytil as having had a concussion. But based on the injuries he has had and what led to them, he’s believed to have suffered at least two concussions last season. He also missed some time during this season’s training camp and preseason with an upper-body injury before taking the hit from Fast, a blind-side collision that wasn’t particularly hard but apparently was jarring.
He suffered a setback when he was injured during a battle drill at a morning skate Jan. 26 at the Garden. Two days later, the Rangers ruled him out for the rest of the season.
In Game 3, he played left wing on the third line with center Alex Wennberg and right wing Kaapo Kakko. With Chytil not playing, rookie Will Cuylle moved back into his spot on the left of Wennberg and Kakko.
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.
