Saturday night was a case of good news and bad news for the New York Rangers. The good news was that the Rangers defeated the Red Wings 1-0, defeating the Wings for the second night in a row. That bad news was that Chris Kreider left the game with an apparent head injury suffered when he took an accidental knee from teammate Mika Zibanajed.Â
The injury status of New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider
After the game, head coach David Quinn stated that his Kreider has an upper-body injury, and would not say it was a concussion. Despite this statement, replays clearly show that Zibanajed’s knee hit Kreider’s head squarely. Quinn stated that Kreider was doing well, and his injury will not be long term. It will remain to be seen if Kreider needs to undergo testing for a concussion, as determined by NHL protocols. The other possibility was that the knee to the head caused a bit of a neck injury, similar to what Zibanajed had earlier in the year.
Beach time did not hinder Lundqvist’s game
Quinn decided to start Igor Shesterkin on Friday night over Henrik Lundqvist because “One guy (Shesterkin) has been playing, and the other guy (Lundqvist) has been on the beach for the past nine days.” While that may have been a bit tongue-in-cheek, the rational paid off as Lundqvist recorded a shutout stopping all 33 Red Wing shots. Lundqvist did note after the game about not playing in a long time when he said, ” It’s been a pretty tough month for me… You try to adjust to it, but in the end, you want to be out there and help the team.”
Trade Rumors Swirl pre-game
Right before the puck dropped, there were two pieces of news that could involve trades for the Rangers. The first was reports out of Calgary that there were going to be three Ranger scouts at the Flames-Oilers game. Both teams have been mentioned as possible trade partners with the Rangers, usually for Chris Kreider. Also, news came out of Toronto that Kasperi Kapanen was a healthy scratch in Saturday night’s game. Kapanen has been mentioned in trades involving Alexandar Georgiev. After the game, the Leafs stated that the scratch was due to “internal accountability.” Kapanen has also been mentioned in trades involving Wild defenseman Matt Dumba.