The absence of fourth-line center Boo Nieves for most of Friday’s game in Detroit and for all of Sunday’s at the Garden threw off the Rangers’ entire rotation up-front. As a result, coach Alain Vigneault has had to shorten his bench and get away from rolling his forward groups.
Of course, the game Nieves missed completely with a hip pointer was a 4-3 shootout win over the Canucks on Sunday at the Garden. It was the Rangers’ fourth win in a row, their eighth straight win at home and their 10th victory in the past 12 games. They are far from needing any type of drastic change right now.
But there is concern with their depth up-front.
David Desharnais, the veteran center who signed a one-year, $1 million deal this summer, has not been able to play his way into a consistent spot in the lineup. Once again, he was benched late in the game Sunday, sitting for the final 27:39 of regulation. The unit Nieves had centered, with Jimmy Vesey on the left and Paul Carey on the right, had just started to find some chemistry and usefulness before Nieves was hurt late in the first period of Friday’s 2-1 overtime win over the Red Wings.
And when Desharnais stepped into that spot after three straight games as a healthy scratch, the line was on the ice for the first two goals against, digging the Rangers a 2-0 hole.
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“It’s not an easy situation for him, sitting out a couple games, and we hadn’t had a lot of practice time,” Vigneault said of Desharnais after the game, his team getting Monday off before returning to action Tuesday with a Garden match against the Panthers. “We’re down [2-1] going into the third, so I’m shortening up my bench here. I just went with 10 guys that I thought were just a little bit better.”
Vigneault’s maneuvering put Vesey up on a line with Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash and resulted in Vesey scoring the game-tying goal 5:05 into the third period before he won it in the seventh round of the shootout. But that limited the ice time of one of Vigneault’s favorite players, Jesper Fast, who had scored a huge goal late in the second period to cut the deficit to 2-1 but got only four shifts in the third period — one more shift than Carey.
This also was the fourth game in which J.T. Miller was back at center, something Vigneault had experimented with (again) at the beginning of the season, when it was determined (again) Miller still is best suited on the wing. Miller has been good down the middle, but it often limits his ability to get in a hard forecheck as one of the few forwards on the team who brings a consistent physical edge.
This would appear to put an enormous workload at even strength on the top two centers, Hayes and Mika Zibanejad, who often double-shift when Vigneault shortens his bench. But Hayes is averaging 14:01 of even-strength ice time per game, good for third on the team behind Miller and leader Mats Zuccarello. Zibanejad is fourth at 13:44 per. Both are just outside the top 100 in the league for average even-strength ice time among forwards.
That is a testament to the Rangers being a team that is not top heavy. During this run of seven straight postseason appearances, the strength of the roster has started in goal with Henrik Lundqvist, but the skaters have been predicated on depth, especially up front. Now, the defense is deeper — still weathering the loss of captain Ryan McDonagh, having missed the past three games with a mild abdomen strain. His status should be updated Tuesday morning.
Nieves is likely to be available Tuesday night, calming the nerves at least a little. But to think the Rangers will go through the season without a major injury up-front also is wishful thinking. The same can be said for hoping Desharnais is able earn the trust of the coaching staff.
For now, it’s working. But for how long is a more difficult question for the Rangers to answer.