While the New York Rangers routed the New York Islanders on Tuesday, they ended the night facing a potential long-term issue of replacing Adam Fox, one of the NHL’s more productive defensemen.
Fox is on injured reserve due to an upper-body injury and the Rangers will be without him for at least week and likely more starting Friday night when they host the surging Toronto Maple Leafs.
Fox was injured when he fell to the ice in Elmont, N.Y., during the third period of New York’s 5-1 rout of the Islanders. Fox was holding his left shoulder when he exited after getting tangled with Islanders forward Kyle MacLean and is expected to return at some point during New York’s final 24 games.
Fox has five goals and 48 points, good for a tie for fourth among defensemen. He is the third of New York’s top six defensemen to be injured this season.
Ryan Lindgren, who is paired with Fox, missed the first five games due to a preseason face injury. K’Andre Miller was on injured reserve in December and missed a week with an upper-body injury and was a non-contact participant at Thursday’s practice after sustaining a lower-body injury Tuesday.
The Rangers are attempting to get their third straight win after returning from the 4 Nations Face-off break with an 8-2 road loss to the Buffalo Sabres. The Rangers were outshot by a combined 77-34 in their wins over the Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins but scored a combined 10 goals. They were fueled by their fourth-liners against the Islanders as Jonny Brodzinski scored twice and set up a goal by Matt Rempe.
“Everything’s about just winning games right now and points going in the column,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “It really doubles down when you’re playing a team that’s somewhere near you in the standings right now, so for that reason, it was a big game.”
Chris Kreider missed the past two games with an upper-body injury that may be related to an earlier back injury but practiced on Thursday, an indication he could be able to return Friday. J.T. Miller, who scored his fifth goal since being acquired from the Vancouver Canucks, was held out of practice due to an illness.
Whoever is in the Rangers’ lineup will face a team who returned from the break and scored 16 goals in wins over the Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins. The Maple Leafs are also 6-1-0 in their past seven since being held to three goals in a three-game losing streak Jan. 22-29.
Toronto is coming off a 5-4 win at Boston on Tuesday when it rallied after allowing the first three goals. Mitch Marner scored twice and netted the game-winner with 52 seconds left in overtime to cap a night when the Maple Leafs lost defenseman Chris Tanev and forward William Nylander.
“We didn’t quit, and that’s something you like to see out of our team,” Marner said.
Tanev exited after absorbing a hit in the first period and is day-to-day with an apparent shoulder injury that likely will keep him sidelined Friday. Nylander appeared to be favoring his arm, was not on the ice during overtime and could play Friday.
Tanev is among the NHL leaders in blocked shots (151) and has a plus-26 rating. The Maple Leafs will compensate by giving slightly more ice time to Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and inserting Philippe Myers into their lineup.
–Field Level Media
