The Rangers lost one of their hottest players on the afternoon of the first period on Saturday night.
Colin Blackwell, who had entered the day with a point in three straight games since being removed from the taxi squad earlier in the week, suffered an upper body injury in the middle of the first period and did not back for the rest of the Rangers’ 5-4 extra waste of time on the penguins.
“I didn’t see it,” coach David Quinn said after the game. “We’re still evaluating, right now we’re not sure what their status is.”
Blackwell, who was denied another goal on a good occasion at the start of the first period, did not play the final 9:13 of the period after going into the room.
Kaapo Kakko faced off to make changes to the second line in Blackwell’s position on the right wing, alongside Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome, before the lines were mixed afterwards.
The Rangers pitched their new power play units for the second straight game and after generating plenty of chances through their first three chances, Saturday finally became the man’s advantage to get a drought of 0 to 8 during his last three games.
The new first unit, with defenders Adam Fox and Tony DeAngelo, who joined Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich, went on ice for Panarin’s goal at the end of the second period.
The second unit of Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider, Alexis Lafreniere, Strome and Kakko also got more work done than they did in their first game together on Thursday, as the Rangers finished Saturday 1-on-5 in the powerful play.
“I think both units give you a different look,” Quinn said. “It’s a small sample size, but we just think the two units need to shake things up.”
Defender Jack Johnson lost his second straight game with a groin strain, with Brendan Smith continuing to take his place alongside DeAngelo. Smith stayed on the bench for the entire third period after being on the ice for each of the Penguins ’first three goals. “Just a decision we made with Smitty,” Quinn said.
Kevin Rooney scored his first goal as a Ranger in an abbreviated attack to tie the game at two in the second period. Rooney and K’Andre Miller lost 2 to 0, with Miller delivering a perfect pass to give Rooney the finish.
Rooney now has 11 professional goals, four of them abbreviated.