OTTAWA, Ontario — It seems as if Alain Vigneault has had enough of watching the Rangers’ B-team.
The coach implied that a couple of regulars are going to rejoin the lineup for Sunday’s regular-season finale at the Garden against the Penguins after resting for the past week.
“That’s a possibility,” Vigneault said with a knowing smile after his team lost its second straight, a 3-1 defeat to the Senators on Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Center.
Among the seven regulars to sit was captain Ryan McDonagh, who missed a fourth straight game with a minor, undisclosed injury, but who has been practicing and declared himself ready for the first game of the playoffs at Montreal, likely to be Wednesday.
Even before the game, Vigneault did not rule out McDonagh playing on Sunday.
“He felt good [Friday],” Vigneault said, referring to McDonagh’s full-team practice. “Depending on how he feels after the skate [Saturday] morning, we’ll decide [Sunday].”
Derek Stepan joined the group of resting players, missing a game for the first time this season. Also out were forwards Rick Nash, Mats Zuccarello and Jesper Fast, along with defensemen Nick Holden and Marc Staal.
“All those guys skated [Saturday] morning, are day-to-day, and I see no issues for the playoffs,” Vigneault said.
Rookie defenseman Brady Skjei was back in the lineup after sitting out Wednesday’s 2-0 loss at Washington.
Taylor Beck played his first game as a Ranger, having been called up Friday afternoon after a terrific season in the AHL. The 25-year-old was obtained in a deadline trade with the Oilers, having also played two games for the Islanders last season.
Beck skated on a line with Jimmy Vesey and Brandon Pirri and was a minus-1 in 12:31 of ice time, registering one shot on net in four attempts.
Winger Tanner Glass played in his third straight game and got into a first-period fight with Matt Borowiecki after the Senator initiated an ugly knee-on-knee hit to Rangers rookie forward Pavel Buchnevich, somehow unpenalized, but not causing any damage.
Glass’ straight-line and hard-nosed style looks to be ready for the postseason, but Vigneault was not ready to make any declarations about the playoff lineup.
“Obviously there are a couple things we’re looking at right now,” Vigneault said, “but we’ll deal with that on Monday.”