After getting an injury scare when his leading scorer, Artemi Panarin, and Panarin’s linemate, Andrew Copp, left Tuesday’s game with upper- and lower-body injuries, respectively, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant decided to make a few changes with his lineup for Wednesday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.
Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba, all of whom had played in every game this season, were scratched, along with the top defense pairing of Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren. For Zibanejad, sitting out ended his consecutive games played string at 184 games.
Kreider has 52 goals, and is two away from tying the franchise single-season record of 54 set by Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06.
With four of their top six forwards, and three of their top six defensemen not in the lineup, the Rangers lost their second game in two nights with a 4-3 loss to last-place Montreal as defenseman Jeff Petry scored two goals, including the winner with 30.7 seconds left.
Petry’s goal ended a nine-game losing streak for Montreal, after Ryan Strome’s shorthanded goal had tied it 3-3 at 15:41 of the period. The Rangers had trailed 2-1 entering the third before Frank Vatrano tied it 2-2 at 4:15 and Mike Hoffman put Montreal ahead 3-2 at 12:08.
As far as the health of Panarin and Copp, Gallant said “there’s nothing to worry about’’ with either player. Panarin left Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to Carolina after his second shift of the second period, when the game was still scoreless. Copp — who had just returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s loss to Boston with a lower-body injury — left after his third shift in the second period with the Rangers trailing 1-0.
After the game, Gallant said both players were cleared to return by the athletic training staff, but with the playoffs starting next week, Gallant decided to keep them out for precautionary reasons. On Wednesday, he insisted both will be ready for Game 1 of the playoffs.
“They are not going to play tonight, either one of them, but there’s no concern of them not] playing next week,’’ he said Wednesday. “They might play Friday [against Washington, in the regular season finale]. We’ll decide on that. But if they don’t play Friday, it’s not because they’re going to be injured, or something.
“We’re making sure, on the cautious side, and we’re going to do that. We’ll see what they’re like tomorrow. And then Friday, we’ll make a decision.’’
One player Gallant did confirm would be playing Wednesday was forward Kaapo Kakko, who missed the last four games with a lower-body injury suffered in the 4-0 win over Detroit on April 16. Kakko had missed 31 games with an upper-body injury and was in his fourth game back after that injury when he left the Detroit game following an awkward fall after a collision with the Red Wings’ Tyler Bertuzzi.
The 21-year-old Finn had practiced with the Rangers on Monday and according to Gallant he could have played Tuesday, but the team didn’t want him returning to play in a back-to-back situation.
Since Tuesday’s loss ended the Rangers’ chances for finishing first in the Metropolitan Division, and also killed any chance they had of setting a record for most points in a season, there was no team objective to play for in the final two games. They are locked into second place and know they will play either Washington or Pittsburgh in the first round.
Playing the Canadiens, who entered the game in last place overall in the league, offered a chance to get some players into a game who had not played much since the trade deadline.
Defenseman Libor Hajek had sat out 25 straight games, and forward Jonny Brodzinski had sat out eight straight, while forwards Greg McKegg and Julien Gauthier -- who both played Saturday in Boston -- had played once in the last 11 games, and twice in the last 20, respectively. And defenseman Justin Braun, who was acquired at the deadline from Philadelphia, has played in seven of 17 games since joining the team.
