Rangers' Sammy Blais getting more and more confident
Rangers left wing Sammy Blais sets before a face off against the Detroit Red Wings in the third period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
SEATTLE – A year and two days after Rangers forward Sammy Blais suffered the ACL injury that ended his first season with the club, both Blais and Rangers coach Gerard Gallant acknowledged that it’s been a slow process for the 26-year-old winger to get back to where he was as a player before he got hurt. But both say he is getting there.
“He's coming back,’’ Gallant said Wednesday, after the Rangers practiced at Climate Pledge Arena to get ready for their game Thursday against the Seattle Kraken. “It's been a long time. What are we 17 games in now? And you know, I see some bright spots. He's playing well, he's working hard, and … he's just getting confident in himself.
“It was a major injury. But I think I feel his game's coming.’’
Blais, who had been acquired from the St. Louis Blues as part of the return in the summer 2021 trade of Pavel Buchnevich, had shown enough in his first month with the Rangers that he had just been promoted to the top line, with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, before he was injured when then-Devils defenseman P.K. Subban slew-footed him in a game at the Garden on Nov. 14, 2021. He finished the season with no goals and four assists in 14 games.
He's played 14 games this season and has no goals and three assists. After starting training camp with Kreider and Zibanejad, he is currently playing on the fourth line, working the last game with center Ryan Carpenter and Julien Gauthier.
“It's been hard to get back into it a little bit, but the past couple of games I've found my legs more, and I’m just trying to get better every day,’’ Blais said. “It was not easy to be out for a long time like that. But today it's in the past now so I'm just trying to get better every day and help this team.’’
Blais has yet to score a goal for the Rangers in 28 games across two seasons, but the 6-2, 206-pounder is at least beginning to consistently provide the physical game Gallant and the coaching staff need from him. His 51 hits are third on the team, behind Vincent Trocheck (56) and Jacob Trouba (55) who have both played three more games than he has, and who both get way more ice time than he does.
Blais said he would like to be “better offensively,’’ but in his current role, he’s focused on playing a physical game.
“My game is to be strong on the forecheck, finishing my hits,’’ he said. “And when I got traded here, that's what they wanted me to do -- play physical and be good on the forecheck. And they wanted some more grit, so that's what I'm trying to bring every night.’’
Blais admitted that in his comeback, part of the difficulty has been physical, but some of it has been mental, too. He’s had to develop confidence in his reconstructed knee and in his own abilities.
“When you get a big injury like that, you think a little bit too much,’’ he said.
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.
