Jimmy Vesey got on his coach’s bad side and lost his lineup spot
It wasn’t just that one turnover. But it didn’t help.
Jimmy Vesey made a difficult mistake in the third period of the Rangers’ 4-3 win over the Devils on Thursday night in Newark, coughing up the puck in his own zone less than a minute after his team had taken a 3-2 lead.
The result was an Egor Yakovlev goal to tie the game.
Vesey didn’t see the ice again the rest of the game, and he now looks to be starting Saturday night’s Garden match against the Lightning on the fourth line with Cody McLeod and Boo Nieves.
“I didn’t love his game from the get-go,” coach David Quinn said after Friday’s practice.
“He’s been playing pretty well, too. Guys have good nights and bad nights.”
The result is, Pavel Buchnevich will take Vesey’s spot on the second line, alongside Kevin Hayes and Jesper Fast. Buchnevich had been a healthy scratch for the first game out of the break, a 1-0 loss to the Flyers on Tuesday night. But when Vesey got benched, Buchnevich jumped up into his spot and even assisted on Mika Zibanejad’s game-winning goal.
“I thought Buchie was playing well,” Quinn said, “and I thought that was the right thing to do.”
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Fast took his second maintenance day in as many practices, but Quinn said he will be ready to play on Saturday.
Defenseman Freddy Claesson skated before the team, the second day in a row he was on the ice as he recovers from a shoulder injury. He was expected to be out two to three weeks, and now Quinn said he is “maybe a week to 10 days away.”
Henrik Lundqvist is set to start his second straight game in goal after he made 19 saves against the Devils. That was the first start for the 36-year-old netminder since Jan. 19, as he was the team’s lone representative at the All-Star festivities in San Jose this past weekend.
There didn’t seem to be any residual effect from the heavy workload on Friday, either.
“Felt good [Friday], and there was never any discussion that he couldn’t practice,” Quinn said. “We anticipated him getting better. It’s just an infection in his foot, the antibiotics he was on, it was a matter of time.”