Rangers need a healthy Mika Zibanejad to make Stanley Cup dreams a reality
Mika Zibanejad of the Rangers lays on the ice during the third period after a collision against the Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Matt Rempe figures to be in the lineup Thursday when the Rangers host the fading Flyers at Madison Square Garden, and again Saturday, when they host a midday rematch with the Islanders, who beat them, 4-2, at UBS Arena on Tuesday.
The Garden fans will be happy to see Rempe, the rookie who’s taken New York and the NHL by storm, in the lineup. But if he is in the lineup replacing Mika Zibanejad, that would be a problem for the Rangers.
Zibanejad was back on the bench at the end of Tuesday’s game, which was good news, after he’d been forced to leave the game following a collision with Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech midway through the third period. He’d been lying face down on the ice for several moments after the collision before he was helped off the ice and escorted to the dressing room.
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette was livid after the game, and accused Pelech of a “vicious shoulder/elbow to the head’’ of Zibanejad. The coach also called Noah Dobson’s unpenalized hit from behind that drove Vincent Trocheck into the end boards in the final seconds “vicious.’’
So Rempe, the 6-8, 245-pound fighter, likely will be in the lineup Saturday afternoon to exact some kind of retribution for those two hits.
But it would be best if Zibanejad is also in the lineup.
The Rangers did not practice Wednesday, so there was no media access and no update on his condition or possible availability for Thursday. If he’s OK and able to play at some point before the regular season is over, then Laviolette and the entire organization can breathe a sigh of relief.
Zibanejad is the Rangers’ No. 1 center, and does so many things for the club that he would be impossible to replace. He has 26 goals and 69 points, with three game-winning goals, two of them in overtime. But he also matches up against other teams’ top lines (he’s plus-13), and his 12 power-play goals are second to Chris Kreider’s 18. And he and Kreider also are the top forward pairing on a penalty-killing unit that is ranked third in the league with a success rate of 83.7%.
The Rangers have aspirations of winning the Stanley Cup. It’s hard to imagine them succeeding in their quest without a healthy Zibanejad.
But Zibanejad isn’t the only indispensable player on their roster. Artemi Panarin, their leading scorer with 46 goals and 116 points, has 40 more points than the next-highest scorer, Trocheck, who has 76 points. Trocheck is also tied for third in the league in faceoff winning percentage, with 58.5, and also plays power play and penalty kill, like Zibanejad.
Defenseman Adam Fox (70 points in 69 games) runs the point on the power play, which is third overall in the league (26.9% success rate) and has scored six goals in 12 opportunities over the last four games. Kreider has four of those goals, and 39 this season.
The Rangers can’t afford to lose any of those players for an extended period if they hope to go far. They’ll be keeping their fingers crossed they get through these last three games of the regular season with everybody healthy.
Shesterkin rates in player poll. Igor Shesterkin was the second choice in a poll of NHL players for the goaltender they’d most want on their team in a must-win game, garnering 6.49% of the vote. Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (46.92%) was the first choice. Panarin was fifth choice among forwards and Fox fifth among defensemen.
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.
