The bottom-six carousel of healthy scratches continued to spin Wednesday, with Johnny Brodzinski being the odd man out this time against the Devils.
After the Rangers’ lackluster performance in the previous game, head coach Peter Laviolette added some solidity to the lineup by reinserting Matt Lempe, who hurt the 6-foot-8-1/2 forward in the past three games. I chose to inject some energy into it.
As always, Lempe did not disappoint.
In keeping with his personal streak, Lempe committed his third game misconduct against the Devils this season after an old-fashioned hockey line brawl broke out in the opener.
“We want to get our guys ready for the playoffs,” Laviolette said before the Rangers defeated the Devils 4-3 at the Garden. “Throughout our lineup, we want to have players who haven’t missed seven games. And I don’t think anyone should. Our players have played well enough that no one should miss seven games. are eligible to play. But again, they can’t. They’ll only have to beat 18 skaters tonight.”
Despite the fact that Rempe has always energized the Blueshirts when he plays, the history between the 21-year-old rookie and the Devils had to be considered before making this decision.
Lempe was sent off for scoring the equalizer against Nathan Bastian on February 22nd (he has been sidelined since then), and was sent off again on March 11th for hitting Jonas Siegenthaler. It became.
He received a four-game suspension for the second incident.
The Devils’ Curtis McDiarmid will finally hang up the gloves with Lempe, who finished with 47 penalties, two games and three fouls in 5 minutes, 03 seconds of ice time in three games in the Battle of the Hudson this season. .
Last weekend in Arizona, Laviolette noted that the Rangers’ opponents are sometimes factored into lineup decisions.
He gave the example of wanting to put together a line of Will Quill, Barclay Goodrow and Jimmy Vesey against the Avalanche.
Some of that may be about the opponent, but Laviolette is still finalizing his playoff lineup and analyzing different looks for the bottom six.
Should an injury occur, Laviolette has several different combinations that players are familiar with.
The top six has remained the same since acquiring Jack Roslovic to fill the right wing spot on the top line behind Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad.
The unit of Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière has been together since Filip Sitil left after 10 games into the season.
Laviolette does not foresee any plans to limit the ice time of top players as part of load management leading up to the playoffs.
“Now we play every other day,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunity to rest. I don’t know if it’s going to be a big problem for someone to go from 22 minutes to 19 minutes. We’re going to play to win games. And be successful in the next game. You will get the rest you need.”
Erik Gustafsson returned to action on Wednesday for the first time since taking an elbow to the head from the Panthers’ Sam Reinhart.
After missing four consecutive games with an upper-body injury, the Swedish defenseman returned to his usual post in the bottom pair alongside Braden Schneider.
The Rangers will have an optional practice on Thursday before heading to Detroit to face the Red Wings on Friday.
