Rangers' Brett Howden calls healthy scratch vs. Bruins a 'good jolt'

When Brett Howden was left out of the lineup last Saturday in the Rangers’ 4-0 win over the Bruins in Boston, it was the first time in his three-year NHL career that the 22-year-old center had missed a game as a healthy scratch.

He was back in the lineup Monday, when the Rangers faced the Philadelphia Flyers at the Garden, and he earned an assist in the 5-4 overtime loss. He earned another assist in Wednesday's 9-0 win over the Flyers, and entered Friday’s game in Washington against the Capitals with four assists on the season.

Howden, who will turn 23 on March 29, said he viewed sitting out last Saturday — and ending his consecutive games played streak at 113 — as something of a "reset’’ for himself.

"I think there comes a time when you don't even realize it, and you're getting a ‘comfortable’ factor that that creeps in,’’ he said. "And I think, for me, just sitting out that game and being able to watch from up top, and kind of focusing in on my game, and being prepared for the next one… was just a good jolt for me to really find my game.’’

What is that game, exactly, though?

"I think I'm a power forward, center or wing,’’ he said. "I can play both. I bring energy and grit, and try to make plays out there.’’

He’s not afraid to drop the gloves, either. He has fought once this season, stepping in when Pittsburgh’s Kasperi Kapanen tried to get at Rangers defenseman Adam Fox, and punishing the Penguins forward.

The 6-3, 200-pound Howden has been a fixture in the lineup since making the team out of training camp as a 20-year-old in 2018. A first round pick (27th overall) in the 2016 draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning, he was traded to the Rangers at the 2018 trade deadline, as part of the return package (along with Libor Hajek) in the Ryan McDonagh-J.T. Miller deal.

That fall, he made the Rangers out of training camp, beating out Lias Andersson to be the fourth-line center. He scored six goals, with 17 assists, in 66 games that season, and last season he had nine goals and 10 assists in 70 games.

But this year, Howden had no goals through his first 27 games. And with the emergence of 27-year-olds Kevin Rooney and Colin Blackwell — as well as the impending arrival of 2018 first-round pick Vitali Kravtsov — there is more competition now for lineup spots among the forwards. In the two games against Philadelphia, Howden shifted to right wing, as Rooney centered the fourth line.

When Filip Chytil (hand), Kaapo Kakko (COVID-19) and Artemi Panarin (leave) returned to action over the past couple of weeks, coach David Quinn began to rotate some of his bottom six forwards out of the lineup. Phillip DiGiuseppe, Blackwell, Brendan Lemieux, Howden and Julien Gauthier all took turns sitting out.

DiGiuseppe being on the team’s COVID-19 list has eased the glut of forwards for the moment, but things still are a little unsettled among the bottom three lines. And they will become even more complicated when Kravtsov completes his quarantine and joins the team sometime next week.

Howden said the increased competition has not put look-over-your-shoulder pressure on the players in the bottom six.

"No, I think during the games, everybody's just focusing on the task at hand, and doing your job,’’ he said. "If you're worrying about all the other little things, then you can't play the best of your ability, and your mind's not in the right spot. Those decisions aren't up to us. Those are coaches’ decisions. And for us, anybody that gets put in, we're just trying to be ready to go and try to win a game.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.