Kevin Hayes news is not what Rangers wanted to hear

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Kevin Hayes didn’t feel well enough to skate at Saturday’s practice, so day-to-day may become a couple of more days before No. 13 can rejoin the lineup.

Hayes, who was sidelined for Friday night’s 6-1 paddy whacking in Colorado with unidentified issues lingering from a Dec. 14 crash into the rear wall that had limited the center’s practice time in the interim, has not skated since Wednesday’s 7-2 rout by the Penguins at the Garden. It would thus be a surprise if he were able to play in Sunday’s 4 p.m. game against the Coyotes.

“This is more of a nagging thing, not anything serious,” David Quinn said. “[Hayes] is such a great healer, you think he’s going to be out for three or four days and, boom, he’s coming back.”

A year ago Hayes played through a believed hip issue before he was eventually forced out of the lineup for a couple of weeks and was not at full strength upon his return. Hayes is too valuable in a myriad of ways to the Rangers for there to be any thought of pushing him to return until his lingering issues have dissipated.

“He wasn’t good enough to skate [at practice],” Quinn said. “Day-to-day is a legit situation.”

Mika Zibanejad did not skate at practice while receiving treatment/maintenance. If both Hayes and Zibanejad were unable to play, the Blueshirts would have to summon a forward to the desert from Hartford to fill the 12-man complement. They had not done so as of Saturday night.

Brendan Smith replaced Fred Claesson on Kevin Shattenkirk’s left during practice. Smith has been scratched from the past three straight and 11 games overall. Tony DeAngelo, who seems destined to sit out again, has watched the past two and 16 for the season. Claesson has been a healthy scratch seven times.

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The advance itinerary listed a Saturday noon practice in Scottsdale. Approximately 90 minutes following Friday’s defeat, practice was canceled. An hour or so later, it and the Rangers were back on.

“Sometimes the game dictates whether or not you practice. My original plan was to not, but after watching the game I felt we needed to practice,” said Quinn. “So that’s what we did. If I thought it would have put us into bad position for tomorrow, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Practice focused more on the mental aspect of the game than the physical mistakes that have been mounting through this stretch in which the Rangers have won five of 18 (5-8-5) since Thanksgiving.

“We talked about a lot of things. I don’t know it was so much about one particular thing, it was much more about mentality,” Quinn said. “We’ve got to come with a different mindset, not taking a million penalties, better changes, more dialed into your responsibility and the structure. To me, [Friday] was much more mental than physical.”

The Rangers, who allowed three power-play goals in Colorado on Friday while down a man (or two, twice) for a sum of 15:23, were shorthanded for 13:49 of the first 28:39. Blueshirts have allowed 15 PPGs against in 54 times short-handed (72.2 percent) over their past 14 games. The club has gone 8-for-35 (22.9) with the man-advantage over the same period.