Prior to Wednesday night, the Rangers had only lost one player on the COVID protocol list, when Kaapo Kakko missed the Feb. 1 game against the Penguins with what turned out to be a false positive test.
Kakko returned to the roster on Saturday, when he was left out of the Blueshirts contest in Washington and remained in Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia. That wasn’t all, however, as the Blueshirts placed K’Andre Miller on the roster also in the hours leading up to the 4-3 defeat against the Flyers.
It is unclear whether Miller, who was replaced in the lineup by Jack Johnson, had tested positive. It is also unknown whether the Rangers could be vulnerable to an outbreak as a result of these situations, which occurred five days apart.
Johnson, a zero for Saturday’s win over the Capitals, had played the Rangers ’3-2 victory over Philadelphia last Thursday after missing the previous eight games with a groin injury. He had participated in a single internship before being part of the training again.
Mika Zibanejad played perhaps his most dynamic game of the year, picking up a couple of assists at 20:20 on ice time, but was denied twice on short breaks, the second at 3:40 and the Blueshirts fell 4-3. Zibanejad was also denied earlier, with 5:45 left in the first period, when the puck rolled over him.
Both times, it went the other way around. Both times, Brian Elliott lived up to the task. He was asked if he thought he could have scored if he had a normal season, not the one in which he has two goals, with one deposited in an empty net.
“I don’t know. I made the move I usually do, he read it, he didn’t come in,” Zibanejad said. “So I don’t know. It’s a difficult question to answer. It just leads to more speculation. I’m trying. make it as simple as possible and not rethink these possibilities ”.
The pair of assists doubled the center’s season total to four.
The Blueshirts delivered 39 shots on goal, the most they have allowed this season.
The Rangers, 2 for 5 in the powerful game, have now scored in three straight with the man advantage (4 for 15) having gone 0 for 14 in the previous five games.
In the absence of Miller, Kakko, Jacob Trouba (thumb) and Artemi Panarin (leave), Brendan Smith and Anthony Bitetto were at the points of the second power unit. The Blueshirts have scored 10 power play goals, with the first unit activated for nine of them.
The Rangers won just 20 of 55 matches (36%), and Zibanejad won just two of their 14 draws.