It's been quite a whirlwind for Alex Wennberg since joining Rangers last month
![Alex Wennberg of the Rangers skates during the first period against...](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.newsday.com%2Fimage-service%2Fversion%2Fc%3AYWE0ZDdhZmEtZmI3Zi00%3AZmEtZmI3Zi00YzE2NDVj%2Fsprang240310.jpg%3Ff%3DLandscape%2B16%253A9%26w%3D770%26q%3D1&w=1920&q=80)
Alex Wennberg of the Rangers skates during the first period against the St. Louis Blues at Madison Square Garden on March 9. Credit: Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH — It has been something of a whirlwind for Alex Wennberg the past month.
On March 6, the 29-year-old center was traded from the Seattle Kraken to the Rangers, meaning he, his eight-months-pregnant wife and their 2 1⁄2- year-old son had to move all the way across the country on a moment’s notice. The family had to find a place to live and get ready for the arrival of the baby, and Wennberg had to join a team that was trying to hold on to first place in the Metropolitan Division and prepare for the playoffs.
Three weeks later, Wennberg missed a game for the first time since joining the Rangers when they played the Flyers at the Garden last Tuesday. His wife delivered baby Ivy that night. Two days after that, though, Wennberg was back in the lineup when the Rangers kicked off a two-game road trip against the Colorado Avalanche.
“I got a full day at the hospital [Wednesday] and then flew out the morning of the Colorado game,’’ he said after the Rangers’ morning skate Monday before their home game against Pittsburgh. “So I got the chance at least to get them home from the hospital and get it all sorted out.’’
Through it all, Wennberg has been a nice addition to the roster as a third-line center whom coach Peter Laviolette called “a really good pickup for us’’ at the deadline. He’s recorded one goal and three assists in 11 games, and the third line, with him between Kaapo Kakko and either Will Cuylle or Jonny Brodzinski, has outscored opponents, outshot them and generally possessed the puck more.
Wennberg, a Swede, and Kakko, a Finn, seem to have developed some chemistry.
“Yeah, absolutely,’’ Wennberg said. “Me and Kaapo have been staying consistent and playing together. And I feel like we’re doing a lot of good things . . . So I feel like there’s chemistry there for sure. Maybe right now we’re generating [scoring chances] and maybe we want to score a few more goals. But at the end of the day, I feel like there’s positive things.’’
“He’s, I feel, a pass-first guy,’’ Kakko said. “So I think I need to start still shooting more, and especially get to those spaces where he can pass the puck.’’
Wennberg might be passing too much, though. In his 11 games with the Rangers before Monday, he was credited with only four shots on goal, and Laviolette would like to see him shoot more often than that.
“I would like that, for sure,’’ Laviolette said. “But some guys are just built differently. They see it and they want to make that play. I believe there’s a fine line there. I do think that that attack on the net is really important. But also, when you have that attack on the net, then you start to get your head up and you start to make the plays, [and] then you become really dangerous.’’
Wennberg said he’s aware that he isn’t shooting enough.
“I feel like maybe now I’m overthinking the game a little bit and, in trying to, like, ‘fit in,’ you kind of lean back to what you’re most comfortable with,’’ he said. “So yeah, [shooting] is something in my game right now that is missing, because I don’t really shoot any pucks right now.’’
But while he promised that he’s working on reminding himself to shoot more, he knows that, at his core, he is a pass-first player. And that is not likely to change.
“I’m always gonna be that guy,’’ he said. “I always think if I have a chance to pass to someone who has a bigger chance to score goals, I’m always gonna make that pass. Obviously, every now and then, you’ve got to throw in some pucks [to the net]. I mean, you see some goals, you don’t really have to make the elite play, or like a back-door tap-in. Sometimes you’ve just got to throw it in there and have a little luck.’’
n Blue linesLaviolette stayed with the same lineup he used Saturday in Arizona. Forward Matt Rempe was scratched for the third straight game and D Chad Ruhwedel was scratched for the second straight, meaning he missed a second opportunity to play against his old team, the Penguins. D Brandon Scanlin was the other scratch . . . D Erik Gustafsson, who missed his fourth game with an upper-body injury suffered on an unpenalized elbow from Florida’s Sam Reinhart on March 23, took part in the morning skate while wearing a red no-contact jersey.