Rangers coach has \u2018a big problem\u2019 with hit to rookie’s head

BUFFALO — David Quinn “had a big problem” with Patrik Berglund’s blow to the head of Filip Chytil two minutes into the second period that sent the Rangers rookie to the locker room for mandatory concussion testing.

Chytil returned to the match after an 11-minute absence from the bench and pronounced himself, “Good, OK,” in the locker room following the Rangers’ 3-1 defeat to the Sabres on Saturday.

“I think it was a hit to the head,” Quinn said of the unpenalized check below the Buffalo goal line. “He didn’t have the puck and he hit him in the head.”

There is no indication whether the Department of Player Safety will become involved for any supplemental discipline.

Play on.

Cody McLeod replaced Vladislav Namestnikov in the lineup in a move the coach said was more about the former than the latter, but Quinn could not have been happy with Namestnikov’s game in Thursday’s opening 3-2 MSG loss to Nashville.

“Cody had a good camp, he played well, and I think he will bring a little more pace and energy to the group,” Quinn said prior to the optional morning skate. “This will give him a chance to continue to build off his camp. Vladdy and I had a good conversation. He’s still fighting his way through it.”

McLeod, who took the worst of it in a fight with Nathan Beaulieu at 14:35 of the first, played 5:35 overall and got two shifts in the third period.

The Sabres had too many men on the ice on Connor Sheary’s first-period power play goal, as acknowledged by the winger, himself.

“What’s that they say?” coach Phil Housley asked rhetorically. “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”

The game marked a reunion of sorts for Quinn and Sabres’ captain Jack Eichel, who went to the 2014-15 NCAA final with BU as a freshman before entering the draft, where he was tabbed with the second selection behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.

Eichel’s collegiate career lasted 40 games and ended with a heart-wrenching 4-3 championship game defeat to Providence. After playing for Team USA in the World Championships, the center consulted with Quinn as he pondered turning pro.

“The question I had for him was why [he] would want to come back after everything he had accomplished in what was a fantasy-like first year until the final game?” Quinn said. “My concern with him coming back was that he wasn’t going to have the same level of respect for college hockey that would allow him to improve.

“It was time for him to go, for sure. Not that he needed me to tell him that. I think he was leaving anyway, but I would have driven him to Buffalo because it was time for him to go.”

And if the Sabres had won the lottery, drafted McDavid and Eichel had gone to the Oilers, would the coach have driven his Hobey Baker Award winner to Edmonton?

“No,” the coach said, laughing loudly. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

Alexandar Georgiev is scheduled to start Sunday’s match in Carolina, marking the earliest appearance for a backup since 2014-15, when Cam Talbot got the nod for Game 2 at Columbus. … Tony DeAngelo and Frederik Claesson were the blue-line scratches for the second consecutive game.