Rangers will be without Noah Laba and Urho Vaakanainen in the next round.
Laba, the Blueshirts’ third-line center, and Vaakanainen, the team’s third-string defenseman, are week-to-week with lower and upper-body injuries, respectively.
Both lost to the Devils on Wednesday morning and did not travel with the team to Columbus on Thursday to complete the streak.
When asked if anyone will need to rest in the injury zone, head coach Mike Sullivan said, “Right now, they’re going to be week-to-week.”
So for now, it’s forced the Blueshirts to continue adjusting. JT Miller slipped between Conor Sheary and Tye Kartye on the third row again. Taylor Raddysh reunited with Vincent Trocheck and Will Cuylle again.
And it will force the Blueshirts to look at the penalty kill, where Laba contributed in his rookie season with more than nine goals and 21 points offensively. Vaakanainen, who has only played 33 games, was replaced by Connor Mackey in the third defense during Rangers training in Tarrytown on Saturday.
The absence of Laba and Vaakanainen also highlighted the recent injury woes the Blueshirts have suffered this season.
Miller has been injured twice. Defender Adam Fox is on the long-term injured reserve. Both goalies – Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick – missed games, too.
All of that has led to Sullivan and his combinations always struggling. Laba, who also missed three games at the beginning of January, and Vaakanainen just made it all happen again.
When asked about the Rangers’ defense recently, and whether they need to improve anything if goaltender Dylan Garand makes his NHL debut this week, Sullivan said “they can be stingier.”
The Blueshirts have allowed at least four goals in each of their past three losses, a streak that directly followed their scoring streak in eight of nine games outside of the Olympic break.
“I think it starts with the decisions we make with the puck, because if you turn the puck in the wrong places in the rink, you don’t take care of the puck, it’s very difficult to get in the frame,” said Sullivan. “He is chasing the game, so I don’t think we have managed the game well in the last few games as we were coming out of the break, for example.
“When we put together a lot of games where we won games, it didn’t happen by accident, I think there were things that happened that gave us a chance to compete.”
Sunday’s game against the Jets gets off to a slow start as the Rangers play nine of their next 10 games at home, with one road game on Wednesday against the Maple Leafs.
Mika Zibanejad will pitch in his 999th game on Sunday, and his 1,000th, barring injury, is expected on Monday – against his former team in the Senators.
He has recorded 10 points in the last seven games.
