Rangers’ depth helping weather Ryan Lindgren, Jacob Trouba absences
The Rangers took on their first game without two of their top four defensemen in Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren, who double as two of their most physical players, too, in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Jets at Madison Square Garden.
It was a one-two punch to the Blueshirts blue line, with president and general manager Chris Drury announcing that Trouba would miss 2-3 weeks with a lower-body injury on March 8 before Lindgren’s tangled crash into the boards with the Islanders’ Jean-Gabriel Pageau on March 17.
“It was listed as a few weeks, so that’s a good thing,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of Lindgren’s recovery timeline. “When you watch somebody leave the ice like that, then you come back and they tell you it might be two or three weeks, that’s some good news. He’s such a great player for us, so it’s tough. But we’ll make sure he’s healthy. We won’t rush him back.”
Trouba is roughly a week and a half into his recovery timeline and has resumed skating on his own, according to Laviolette.
There is still no definitive timetable for Trouba’s return, but Laviolette said he expects the Rangers captain to follow a normal reintegration into the team in a non-contact jersey at some point.
While Zac Jones has already stepped in for Trouba, Chad Ruhwedel was able to make his Rangers debut on Tuesday in Lindgren’s absence.
Despite the Rangers’ acquisition of the veteran defenseman from Pittsburgh before the deadline, Laviolette stuck with Jones, who has served as the seventh defenseman all season.
Jones has rewarded Laviolette’s loyalty with a string of strong games, but there has been an expectation that the Rangers wanted to get a look at Ruhwedel eventually.
The 33-year-old defenseman finished with one shot, one block and one hit in 13:31 of ice time.
“I thought he was good,” Laviolette said of Ruhwedel. “I thought the defense was good. I don’t think we gave up too much. They got a couple of breakaways from our offensive zone play, so we’ve got to tighten that up a bit. They got behind us. But I thought he came in and played steady minutes, good minutes, for his first game with us.”
The Jets announced Tuesday morning that head coach Rick Bowness would not be behind Winnipeg’s bench against the Rangers due to a “minor medical procedure.”
Bowness returned to Winnipeg for treatment and is expected to return to the team “once his condition improves.”
Associate head coach Scott Arniel stepped up as interim head coach in Bowness’ absence.
Alex Wennberg scored a goal while skating in his 700th career NHL game on Tuesday.
