Rangers rookie K'Andre Miller misses first game with upper-body injury
K'Andre Miller led Rangers in takeaways entering Tuesday with 12, was second in plus/minus (plus-5), and was the second-leading scorer among defensemen with one goal, three assists in 13 games. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
Rookie K’Andre Miller, who has quickly established himself as one of the Rangers’ top defensemen, missed his first game of the season Tuesday night when he was left out of the lineup because of an upper-body injury. Brendan Smith, who had missed the previous four games with an upper-body injury, took Miller’s place in the lineup on the left side of the second defense pair, partnered with Jacob Trouba.
Miller, 21, led the team in takeaways entering Tuesday with 12, was second on the team in plus/minus (plus-5), and was the second-leading scorer among defensemen with one goal, three assists (four points) in 13 games. He had quickly earned coach David Quinn’s trust and become one of the team’s regular penalty-killers, and had just been added to the second power-play unit. And his ice time had grown, to 19:34 per game.
Artemi Panarin, the team’s leading scorer (5-10-15 in 12 games), also sat out, missing his second game with a lower-body injury. Both players were close to playing, Quinn said, but the team opted to leave them out.
"There was discussion maybe those guys might be able to go, but unfortunately they won't be able to,’’ Quinn said.
Schedule changes
The NHL announced the start time of Saturday’s game in Washington against the Capitals has been changed to 12:30 p.m. and Sunday’s game has been moved to Saturday, March 20, at 7 p.m. Sunday’s game was moved because Washington now will be hosting the Devils Sunday night, in a game that had originally been scheduled for March 7. The game against the Philadelphia Flyers, which had been scheduled for last Sunday, but was postponed becuase the Flyers having several players unavailable thanks to COVID-19, has yet to be rescheduled… C Filip Chytil, who has been out since getting injured in a game in Pittsburgh Jan. 24, has not yet skated, Quinn said. Chytil has been on the Rangers’ Covid list since Feb. 11.
Weekend games rescheduled
The NHL announced the start time of Saturday’s game in Washington against the Capitals has been changed to 12:30 p.m. and Sunday’s game has been moved to Saturday, March 20, at 7 p.m. Sunday’s game was moved because Washington now will be hosting the Devils Sunday night in a game that had originally been scheduled for March 7. The game against the Philadelphia Flyers, which had been scheduled for last Sunday but was postponed due to the Flyers having several players unavailable because of COVID-19, has yet to be rescheduled . . . Center Filip Chytil, who has been out since getting injured in a game in Pittsburgh Jan. 24, has not yet skated, Quinn said. Chytil has been on the Rangers’ COVID-19 list since Feb. 11.
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.
