Before Wednesday night, the Rangers had lost just one player to the COVID protocol list, when Kaapo Kakko missed the February 1 game against the Penguins with what turned out to be a false positive test.
Kakko returned to the list on Saturday when he was sidelined for the Blueshirts game in Washington and remained on it for Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia. That wasn’t all though, as the Blueshirts also put K’Andre Miller on the list in the hours leading up to the 4-3 defeat to the Flyers.
It is unclear whether Miller, who was replaced by Jack Johnson in the lineup, had tested positive. It is also not known whether the Rangers may be vulnerable to an outbreak in the aftermath of these situations, which occurred five days apart.
Johnson, a scratch to Saturday’s win over the Capitals, played in the Rangers’ 3-2 shootout win in Philadelphia last Thursday after missing the previous eight games with a groin injury. He had only participated in one practice before rejoining the line-up.
Mika Zibanejad played arguably his most dynamic game of the year, collecting a few assists in the 8:20 PM Ice Age, but he was denied twice on short breakaways, the second with 3:40 left and the Blueshirts behind 4-3. Zibanejad was also declined earlier, with 5:45 left in the first period when the puck rolled on him.
Both times he went to the backhand. Both times, Brian Elliott was up to the task. He was asked if he thought he would have scored if he had a normal season, not this season where he has scored two goals, one of which went into an empty net.
“I don’t know. I made the move I normally do, he read it, it didn’t go in,” said Zibanejad. “So I don’t know. It’s a tough question to answer. It just leads to more speculation. I try to keep it as simple as possible and not exaggerate those odds. “
The pair of assists doubled the center’s season total to four.
The Blueshirts gave 39 shots on target, the highest number they have allowed this season.
The Rangers, 2-for-5 on the power play, have now scored three consecutive times with the man advantage (4-for-15) after scoring 0-for-14 in the previous five games.
In the absence of Miller, Kakko, Jacob Trouba (inch) and Artemi Panarin (leave), Brendan Smith and Anthony Bitetto were on the points on the second unit’s power play. The Blueshirts have scored 10 power play goals, of which the first unit was on nine.
The Rangers only won 20 of 55 face-offs (36 percent), while Zibanejad won only two of his 14 draws.