How Rangers plan to weather the storm after losing two of their biggest stars to injury

GREENBURGH —  How, Mika Zibanejad was asked, do he and the Rangers attempt to mitigate the losses of Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox for an indeterminate period of time?

His answer was anything but sugarcoated.

“It sucks, honestly,” the longest-tenured Ranger said. “Having [said that], we have been dealing with some of this already throughout the season, and so we just have to come together even more as a group. Just battle through it. A lot of teams go through it so we’re no different. We have to find ways to win games [without them].”

The first opportunity for the Rangers (20-18-6, 46 points) comes Thursday night at the Garden against the Sabres (22-15-4, 48 points), who are 11-1 in their last 12 games..

That’s the known. It is the unknowns that are worrisome.

Both Shesterkin and Fox suffered lower-body injuries in Monday night’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Mammoth. Shesterkin was helped off the ice with seven minutes remaining in the first period.

Fox left the game with 59 seconds remaining in the third period, and it was not immediately clear how and when he was injured.

The team announced Tuesday that Shesterkin was placed on injured reserve while Fox was put on LTIR. Goaltender Spencer Martin and defenseman Scott Morrow were called up from AHL Hartford in the corresponding roster moves.

Coach Mike Sullivan did not have any updates on Shesterkin and Fox Wednesday morning. He did think, however, J.T. Miller could be able to play against the Sabres. Miller, who was a full participant in the hour-long practice at the MSG Training Center, has not played since the Rangers’ 5-4 overtime win over the Flyers on Dec. 20 when he suffered an upper-body injury.

Miller also expressed hopefulness that he could play Thursday.

“It’ll be big, especially losing Fox and [Shesterkin],” Will Cuylle said about the potential return of Miller. “Obviously, he’s the captain of our team so it’s a big, big piece we’re missing. And it’ll be good to get him back."

In part because the Rangers were 1-5-1 in the seven games without Miller, and find themselves in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division, 14th in the Eastern Conference.

But it bears noting that the Rangers are only three points behind Pittsburgh for the second wild-card spot in the East. So, yes, it is a boon for a team that’s without Shesterkin, Fox, Adam Edstrom (lower body), Noah Laba (upper body), and Connor Sheary (lower body) to theoretically reinsert a healthy Miller into the lineup.

“What criteria do you use to assess it?” Sullivan asked rhetorically in response to a question about how he thinks his team has coped with its injuries in the first half of the season. “Is it win-loss record? Because if that’s the case, you’d like to think we’d win more games … I don’t think it’s an easy question to answer depending on what you define as the criteria when you assess something.

“What I do think is that we put a lot of players in positions that might be out of their comfort zone. Some of them have handled it pretty well. Others, it’s been a little bit of a mixed bag. We’re probably not unique in that regard.”

Notes & quotes: Alexis Lafreniere did not practice due to illness.