The phrase Alain Vigneault used superstitiously was “touch wood.”
“We’ve been — touch wood — fairly healthy up front,” the Rangers coach said Wednesday morning in Ottawa, “other than Mika in the middle.”
No, “Mika in the Middle” is not the name of a new sitcom, but there is drama as the Rangers deal with the absence of top-line center Mika Zibanejad, whose delayed onset of concussion symptoms forced him to miss a seventh straight game in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Senators. Vigneault cancelled a scheduled practice for Thursday in New York and Zibanejad skated on his own, something he has been doing for about a week.
Yet without a full-team practice, he is unlikely to be ready for Friday’s match at the Garden against the Kings. The same can be said for the second leg of the back-to-back, Saturday’s 5 p.m. start in Boston. With two straight losses(Monday’s a 2-1 shootout loss to the Stars), the Rangers are trying to nip this thing in the bud.
Yes, the Rangers have been relatively healthy up front. But as Zibanejad’s injury continues to keep him out, it has become crystal clear just what a big factor he is — and especially to their biggest offensive weapon, their power play.
After going 0-for-1 on the man-advantage against Ottawa, the Rangers now are 3-for-34 (8.8 percent) in 13 games since Nov. 11 — and two of those goals were gifts from Hurricanes netminder Scott Darling on Dec. 1. Zibanejad was injured on Nov. 24 against the Red Wings, but played the next game against the Canucks. Zibanejad recently said he “maybe shouldn’t have played.”
But in the seven games that preceded this power-play outage, and with Zibanejad in the lineup, the Rangers had gone 9-for-23 (39.1 percent). Not so coincidentally, they also had a 6-1-0 record during that stretch and had started to put their season on stable ground.
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Regarding the Rangers, who with 16 wins in 31 games…
There has been no denying the first unit, with David Desharnais taking Zibanejad’s place, has been a shell of itself, with Kevin Shattenkirk now the only right-handed shooter. The second unit is five lefties, and the recent swap of Brady Skjei for Jimmy Vesey has produced similarly disappointing results.
With Zibanejad out, Vigneault has also moved J.T. Miller back to center, staying on a line between Michael Grabner and Mats Zuccarello. Despite being one of the team’s most engaged forwards every night, Miller has made a couple of recent costly mistakes, accountably owning up to the gaffe of losing his man, Zach Smith, on what became the Senators’ game-winning goal just eight seconds into the third period Wednesday.
Despite Desharnais’ quick hands and good vision, he is not the same 200-foot player Zibanejad is. It was just before the injury that Desharnais had been a healthy scratch for three straight games.
As with any team, there are going to be injuries. Depth is going to be tested. No superstition is going to stop it from happening.