New York Rangers’ Defense Struggling With Key Injuries

By Dominic Lancella on October 21, 2014

Due to a few new faces and a couple of key departures in the offseason, the New York Rangers knew that this season would be a work in progress identifying which forwards would play on which lines. That process got even murkier when the Rangers lost top-center Derek Stepan for 4-6 weeks, but now all of a sudden it’s New York’s defense that looks banged up.

The Rangers lost Dan Boyle on the first night of the season to a broken hand, and the veteran is expected to miss another month or more. Now suddenly, two more of New York’s defensemen have suffered injuries. Both Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein left New York’s last game early and did not return. Girardi is listed with a lower-body injury while Klein has a lacerated chin. Their injuries are not as severe as Boyle’s broken hand, but it could impact the Ranger defense in the next few games.

Girardi and Klein are listed as questionable for New York’s game tonight against the New Jersey Devils. It’s most likely that both of them play, but it still raises concern. Girardi is regarded as one of the tougher defensemen in the league when it comes to playing through injuries, but we don’t know exactly what’s wrong with him. A “lower-body” injury could be many things, and most hockey injuries are described in this vague manner to avoid other teams knowing exactly what’s bothering the given player.

A bigger question with the injured Ranger defensemen is how effective will they be playing hurt? Klein isn’t as big of a worry with the lacerated chin, but the Rangers defensively lean on Girardi more than any other player. A recent tweet from the Rangers organization this afternoon reported that Girardi says he’s “good to go,” but it’s hard to gauge how much the injury is still bothering him.

Klein and Girardi are definitely two players to watch closely against the Devils tonight, and the last thing New York wants is for Girardi to further injure himself. Regardless of if Klein and Girardi are in the lineup tonight, defenseman Matt Hunwick will likely continue to see the lineup.

Hunwick has played in four out of five games since Boyle went down and has held his own. Hunwick’s most notable contribution was when he saved a goal in New York’s last game. The puck was trickling in the crease towards the goal line when Hunwick swept it away just before the entire puck crossed the line.

It’s certainly unfortunate irony for the Blueshirts; they had many questions about their forwards in the offseason, but it seemed that everything was set defensively. Suddenly, the defense is banged up and the Rangers have to fight through it. Injuries are part of the game and every team has to deal with them, but the good teams are the ones that persevere when key players go down. For the Rangers’ sake, hopefully their defense avoids any more injuries in the near future.