Adam Fox had no time or interest in discussing his health before Game 1 of this conference final, when he flicked away a question to that effect like sweat from his brow.
“Good,” he said Tuesday. “Ready to go tomorrow.”
Only tomorrow came and went, and Fox labored through 24:56 of ice time looking not quite like himself, and he was on the ice for a pair of five-on-five goals against.
Whether or not Fox is still feeling the effects of a knee-on-knee collision with Nick Jensen in the first round is a question nobody should expect a real answer on until after the season.
But it sure does raise eyebrows that Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to the Panthers marked Fox’s fifth straight game without a point — his longest pointless streak since going six in a row to close out the 2020-21 regular season.
Fox has just four other such streaks without a point that are five or more games in his career, one of which being the first seven games he played in the NHL.
Right now, this problem is not just limited to No. 23 for the Rangers.
Their defense corps has combined for just two goals in the playoffs. But Fox is the one who’s supposed to be leading the charge. He knows that.
“I think we want to produce, obviously,” Fox said Thursday. “Some more than others, myself included, are expected to produce a bit more offense. I think our main goal as a D corps is to defend first, especially against high-octane teams and not really force that offense.
“Getting up on the rush, joining late and delivering pucks from the blue line, maybe getting bounces like that. I think definitely, we want to jump when the opportunity presents itself.”
It rarely did so in Game 1, when transporting the puck proved to be an all-encompassing issue for the Rangers.
“I think especially the first two series, [the defenders] were trying to move, trying to get involved,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “The winning goal [in Game 6 against Carolina] where [Ryan Lindgren] takes it around the net, the movement and motion. Definitely find more pucks to the net, lanes to the net on the back side of the rush, that type of thing. I think that can help their production.”
Asked whether Filip Chytil was OK after taking a hit from Nikko Mikkola in the final seconds of Game 1, Laviolette only said, “We don’t have anything to report at this point,” regarding the lineup.
“Would I like a bit more physicality? Sure,” he said. “As far as what we do, we gotta focus on the game and play the game.