Rangers looking forward to getting their energizer back
Cause-and-effect is a debatable proposition as it applies to the Rangers’ 3-5-3 record in the 11 games since Cody McLeod went down with a broken hand he sustained in a Thanksgiving Eve fight with the Islanders’ Ross Johnston.
But there is no doubt that the fourth-line enforcer will rejoin the lineup the moment he is cleared to do so, perhaps by New Year’s. That was perfectly clear in the wake of David Quinn’s praise of the winger on Thursday after No. 8 joined his teammates for practice for the first time since the injury, even as he donned a non-contact jersey. He had been skating for the last week.
“We miss his energy, for sure,” said the coach, who’d played McLeod in six straight and 14 of the previous 15 after designating him as a healthy scratch in five of the first seven matches.
“Obviously people talk about the physical piece of his game, but you just look at what he gives us from an energy standpoint, his personality, he has a lot of things that we are short of. He does a good job on the forecheck and he’s responsible structurally.
“We do miss him big-time, on and off the ice.”
The 34-year-old veteran is working on a one-year deal worth $750,000, to which he was signed over the summer after a disappointing 25-game run following his Jan. 25 waiver claim from Nashville.
He has been far more engaged this year while working on the fourth unit with a mix of linemates. McLeod is living up to his job description. As such, he could well become a desired commodity on the rental market.
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McLeod was injured in the Nov. 21 fight at 9:32 of the second period that was provoked by Johnston, who had spent a period trying to goad Rangers into dropping the gloves. once the Islanders allowed two goals in the game’s opening 3:30. It was 3-0 when McLeod reluctantly went with Johnson after rejecting several offers starting at the 6:16 mark of the first period.
It mattered not to referees Marc Joannette and Gord Dwyer that Johnston had instigated this bout after McLeod had shaken him off a couple of times in the sequence, for both players received the same five-minute major penalty for fighting.
“I get it, he’s trying to get some fire from his team going, he was just doing his job,” McLeod said of Johnston, for whom he bears no ill will. “I look back and wish I’d have kept my hands down, and I’m not the kind guy who’s going to back down, but if that’s not an instigator [penalty], I don’t know how you clarify it.
“I was trying to draw the extra two, but I guess the refs didn’t see it that way. I’ve been on the other side of it, too. There’s always a risk of getting it.”
Kevin Shattenkirk has not skated since suffering a separated shoulder Dec. 10 at Tampa Bay. As such, Quinn said he would expect the defenseman to miss closer to the top end of his projected two- to four-week timeline for a return.
Quinn said that splitting the weekend back-to-back — in Toronto on Saturday before the Garden the next night against the Flyers — between Henrik Lundqvist and Alex Georgiev in goal is “certainly on the table.”
Georgiev was in nets for Tuesday’s victory in which the Blueshirts allowed 15 shots. Lundqvist has gone 372 starts since the Rangers last allowed that many or fewer. Lundqvist recorded a 2-0 shutout over the Devils while facing 13 shots on Feb. 27, 2012.