It appears the New York Rangers will be without forward Filip Chytil when they open a four-game trip Sunday night in Seattle.
Whether Chytil will join the Rangers later on the trek, which also will comprise stops in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, is uncertain.
“Right now he’s still getting evaluated, and we’ll see,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said after practice Saturday and before the team boarded a flight for the Pacific Northwest.
Chytil suffered an upper-body injury in the second period of a 3-2 victory against the visiting San Jose Sharks on Thursday when he collided with teammate K’Andre Miller. Chytil returned for one shift later in the period before being ruled out for the rest of the game.
Through 15 games this season, Chytil has nine points (four goals, five assists) and a plus-11 rating centering the third line with Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko.
The concern for Chytil is compounded because he missed all but 10 games last regular season with an upper body injury that was believed to be a concussion.
“We’re always careful with players,” Laviolette said. “Nobody jumps back without doctors and everybody doing their job. When players come back out on the ice and get put into games, they’re healthy.”
New York’s Mika Zibanejad scored his first goal in nine games in Thursday’s victory.
“It’s nice to contribute,” he said. “This means I get to go home and enjoy tonight with my family.”
Zibanejad had three turnovers that led to goals in the Rangers’ 6-3 loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday.
“He’s a guy who has had a lot of success and scored a lot of goals,” Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said. “I think it was a big goal just for him to get that going and for the team to kind of jump-start us as well.”
Jimmy Vesey and Vincent Trocheck scored one goal apiece for New York on Thursday, and Artemi Panarin had an assist to extend his point streak to six games. Goaltender Igor Shesterkin made 25 saves.
The Kraken will go for a sweep of the New York teams after defeating the visiting Islanders 3-2 in a Saturday matinee.
Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak scored the winner at 16:47 of the third period on a slap shot from the blue line that deflected off the skate of the Islanders’ Brock Nelson. That came after the Kraken’s fourth line of Brandon Tanev, Yanni Gourde and Tye Kartye pinned New York deep in its own end.
“I think we just stuck to what has been giving us success,” Oleksiak said after the Kraken improved to 4-0-0 on their six-game homestand. “Obviously, the Gourde-Tanev-Kartye line has been really good for us, and on the game-winning goal, I didn’t do anything crazy. I just worked hard, got the puck at the point, got it to the net, and it went in for us.”
Gourde and Jared McCann also scored for Seattle, with McCann extending his point streak to five games (four goals, three assists).
“You have to take your own bite by pounding it out, taking your chances when you can get them, and drive it down to the other end,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said. “I thought the first period — we talked about our starts — we came out, and the first couple of swings were in our favor. … You just had to stay with it for 60 minutes.”
–Field Level Media