Mika Zibanejad will play for Rangers on Thursday night
Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers lays on the ice during the third period after a collision against the Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
GREENBURGH — Mika Zibanejad was OK, it turned out, after that jarring collision he had with Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech in the third period Tuesday. He was actually back on the bench by the end of that game, and will be in the lineup Thursday night, none the worse for wear, when the Rangers host yet another desperate team, the Philadelphia Flyers, at the Garden.
“I was more shocked than anything, maybe, that all of a sudden he was there,’’ Zibanejad said at Thursday's morning skate of Pelech, who was standing in the neutral zone while Zibanejad was skating across the ice, trying to go off on a line change.
“I'm all right right now,’’ Zibanejad said. “I feel good… I’m lucky [given] the situation that happened, that it wasn't anything worse."
The Rangers were certainly lucky, too, that they didn’t lose their No. 1 center to an injury a little more than a week before the playoffs are set to start. After Thursday night’s game, the Rangers have just two more remaining in the regular season, and they will be crossing their fingers that they are able to get out of those games without any significant injuries to anyone on their roster.
“Everybody would like that, throughout the league,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said. “Everybody's still playing hard.’’
Laviolette after the game accused Pelech of deliberately hitting Zibanejad, calling it a “vicious shoulder/elbow to the head." On Thursday, the Rangers head coach said he had “decompressed a little’’ since Tuesday night. He said he was “frustrated’’ Tuesday.
“My frustration is that our guys were playing hard in that game, and I would like to have seen us on the power play a few times in the third period,’’ he said.
Asked if he’d re-thought his stance on Pelech’s intentions toward Zibanejad, he replied, “Moving on.’’
Zibanejad didn’t sound like a man who thought the collision was deliberate. He was coming from the far side of the ice, across the neutral zone and heading for the bench, and was looking into the Rangers’ zone, making sure it was safe to make a change. He never saw Pelech.
“Honestly, I haven't looked at it,’’ he said. “I've seen it one time, from one angle. I would hope that it's not intentional. But it's a bizarre situation. I look, [but] I don't see him. I don't know if he's stopping, or whatever he's doing. I don't see that. I kind of take a look, left and right, before, and then the play is in the other end.
“I'm not gonna sit here and make accusations or whatever,’’ he said. “I'm trying to focus on how I'm doing, how I'm feeling, and that's the only important thing right now.’’
As for his reaction to Laviolette’s claim Tuesday the hit was deliberate and vicious, Zibanejad said he appreciated the coach sticking up for him.
“He's showing that he's standing up for his players, defending his players, and that's always nice to have, when you feel like the guys on the coaching staff have your back,’’ he said. “I'm not gonna say no to that.’’
The fact that Zibanejad had such a close call (and Chris Kreider, who was hit in the first period by a Zibanejad shot and forced to leave the game for a while, also escaped injury) didn’t change Laviolette’s position on not choosing to rest key players down the stretch.
“Not at this point, no,’’ he said. “Right now, we're dialed in, and trying to collect the two points every night.’’
Likewise, Zibanejad said he can’t play while worrying about the chance of getting hurt.
“I think you put yourself in a worse position if you're thinking about it,’’ he said. “You don't have to be reckless, but I think that goes for any game, any time of the year… We still have a lot to play for. And we have games that we want to win."
The Rangers, 53-22-4 (110 points) entering Thursday, were three points ahead of Carolina in the race for the Metropolitan Division, and three ahead of Carolina and Boston — who are both idle Thursday — for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They are one point ahead of Dallas, which hosts Winnipeg, in the battle for first overall in the league.
With Zibanejad able to play, Laviolette will stay with the same lineup he used Tuesday, meaning forward Matt Rempe and defensemen Zac Jones and Chad Ruhwedel are the scratches… Jonathan Quick will start in goal.
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.
