After a bit of a wait, it seems the Rangers skaters are getting closer to full health.
Forwards Rick Nash and Michael Grabner participated fully in Saturday’s practice, and coach Alain Vigneault said he expects both to be ready for Sunday night’s game at Detroit. Nash missed Thursday’s 4-3 loss at Carolina with a lingering upper-body injury. Grabner has been out since he was cross-checked by teammate Adam Clendening in a practice on March 1, missing the previous five games.
“Nasher looked fine on the ice,” Vigneault said. “Grabs, this is the best I’ve seen him look since the injury. So I would say at this time I would expect them both to be in unless something happens from now until then.”
Vigneault also was able to reunite some old forward lines, with the Grabner-Kevin Hayes-J.T. Miller unit working together at practice, as well as the Pavel Buchnevich-Mika Zibanejad-Nash line. That kept together the Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello line, and had a fourth line of Tanner Glass-Oscar Lindberg-Jimmy Vesey.
Vigneault said that is the way he expects to line up Sunday, with Matt Puempel and Brandon Pirri being scratches up front.
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Clendening was set to be a scratch on the backend, and Sunday would be his fourth straight game out of the lineup. Recent call-up Steven Kampfer practiced Saturday paired with rookie Brady Skjei, where he has been for the previous two games.
The Marc Staal-Ryan McDonagh duo also stayed together, as did the Brendan Smith-Nick Holden pair.
Smith recently was obtained in a trade with the Red Wings, where he played the first five-plus years of his career, calling Joe Louis Arena home. With the franchise set to move to a new arena next season, and with their 25-year playoff streak about to come to an end, Sunday is set to be the last game Smith plays there.
“The emotions are going to be different for me, as they will be for some of the other players,” he said. “I’m going to try to take every moment in. I love that rink. It’s going to be sad to play there for the last time. ”
Forward Jesper Fast skated at the beginning of practice with a non-contact jersey. He hurt his shoulder on Feb. 28 and has missed the previous five games, expected out 2-3 weeks.