Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey out on a week-to-week basis with upper-body injury
Florida Panthers left wing Matthew Tkachuk (19) passes the puck against Rangers left wing Jimmy Vesey (26) during the first period of Game 1 of the NHL hockey Eastern Conference Stanley Cup playoff finals, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Credit: AP/Julia Nikhinson
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rangers coach Peter Laviolette has said multiple times that if a team is going to go a long way in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it is going to need contributions from a lot of people.
And the Rangers will need to tap into some of their depth during the Eastern Conference final, because Laviolette said Saturday that forward Jimmy Vesey is out on a week-to-week basis with an upper-body injury.
“When you go through the whole thing, it’s a long grind, and things pop up like it did last night,’’ Laviolette said from the Rangers’ team hotel in South Florida, where the series has shifted for Games 3 and 4 after the Rangers and Florida Panthers split the first two games at Madison Square Garden.
Game 3 is Sunday at 3 p.m.
“You need a lot of players available, so we’ve got a lot of guys that are ready to jump back in the lineup, and that’s a good thing for us,’’ he said. “We were getting healthy, and so we take a little bit of a hit last night. But it’s nice to have the players there, ready to go.’’
Vesey was injured after he took a high open-ice hit from forward Ryan Lomberg during the second period of the Rangers’ 2-1 overtime victory in Game 2 on Friday night. On replay, Lomberg’s shoulder appeared to contact Vesey on the left shoulder; he left for the locker room and did not return. No penalty was called on the play.
Vesey, who turns 31 on Sunday, plays on the fourth line and is one of the team’s better defensive forwards. He also is one of the Rangers’ six penalty-killing forwards. Laviolette will have several options to consider when he decides how to replace him.
Assuming Matt Rempe stays in the lineup after playing in Game 2 and leading the team with nine hits, the choices to replace Vesey from among the extra forwards who have been with the team are Kaapo Kakko (who was scratched to make room for Rempe in Game 2), Jonny Brodzinski, Blake Wheeler and Adam Edstrom.
The simplest move would be to put Kakko back in, though that might require moving around some pieces within the lineup. Kakko is almost exclusively a right wing and Vesey is primarily a left wing.
Because Vesey kills penalties, that also has to be a consideration for Laviolette.
The Rangers’ penalty kill is second in the league in the playoffs behind Edmonton, having compiled a success rate of 88.4% (five power-play goals allowed in 43 times shorthanded). The man-down group did give up a goal in Game 2 against Florida.
Laviolette said there are players who haven’t been part of the six-man group of forwards he uses to kill penalties who get penalty-killing work in practice and sit in on meetings. One of those might be options to kill penalties.
That could mean Brodzinski, who played two games during the Carolina series but otherwise has been a member of the “Black Aces’’ who are practicing hard every day to stay ready in case they are needed.
Brodzinski didn’t kill penalties for the Rangers this season but did so in the AHL with Hartford. Kakko killed penalties some last season but has not this season. Wheeler didn’t kill penalties, either.
The Rangers called up 13 members of their Hartford farm team after its season ended with a loss to Hershey on Wednesday in the Calder Cup playoffs.
The Rangers have yet to score a power-play goal in the series. They went 0-for-4 in Game 2 and are 0-for-6 in the two games.
“We’re playing another penalty kill [in Florida] that’s pressuring a lot, obviously,’’ forward Mika Zibanejad said Saturday. “There’s a certain level of the execution that we have to be better at, but at the same time, we’ve had some good looks that haven’t gone in.
“We’re just gonna keep going. And I’m sure we’ll talk about it [Sunday] again, to see if there’s anything from these two games that we can take and either make adjustments or try to do something better.’’
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.
