Wendell Cruz-Imagn ImagesThe New York Rangers picked up where they left off out of the Olympic break, squandering a 2-0 lead en route to a 3-2 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
The night began with a tribute to all members of the Rangers who were part of the U.S. Olympic gold medal team.
“Obviously, the celebration before the game is a special moment for a lot of us,” Mike Sullivan said. “Certainly proud of the accomplishment that the Olympic team was able to win the gold medal. We're particularly proud of J.T. and Troche and the contribution that they had in helping us win over there, those guys were instrumental in so many ways. So that's a proud moment for us.”
Thursday night marked the return of Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin, who missed 13 games with lower-body injuries.
Fox led the team with 24:57 minutes, while Shesterkin ended the night with a total of 21 saves on 24 shots, but Sullivan didn’t appear to be particularly satisfied with their performance.
“It was okay,” Sullivan said of Fox and Shesterkin’s performance. “They're capable of another level. Foxy has missed a lot of hockey. It’s going to take him some time to get in the game speed, game timing, things of that nature. He missed so much time. I would anticipate Foxy getting better with each game that he plays.”
Fox was sidelined on long-term injured reserve when Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury issued a letter outlining the team’s plan to retool the roster.
After the game, Fox voiced his opinion and thoughts on the letter for the first time, expressing his disappointment, specifically mentioning the loss of Artemi Panarin, even though he wasn’t asked directly about it Panarin.
“It’s not fun to hear,” Fox said about Drury’s letter. “We're competitive people in here. We want to win. You lose a guy like Bread (Artemi Panarin) and you don’t know what else could happen. Obviously, we put ourselves in this position, and that’s what happens. It obviously sucks when something like that happens.”
The 28-year-old defenseman was non-committal when asked if he wants to stick around with the Rangers for a retool.
While he didn’t necessarily give any strong indications about where his head is at past this season, he also didn’t emphatically commit to a future with the Blueshirts.
“I'm just trying to focus on this year right now and play each game,” Fox said. “That's really all I could do right now. That’s a conversation for when we’re done playing.”
The retool is already in full effect just based on Sullivan’s sudden change in philosophy regarding the way in which he utilizes the younger players.
Sullivan opted to slot Brennan Othmann onto the penalty kill, a role he doesn't have any experience in at the NHL level, and he placed Brendan Brisson, who made his Rangers debut on Thursday night, onto the second power-play unit.
With the Rangers fully committed to this proclaimed “retool”, Sullivan is now seeking to give the younger players more of an opportunity moving forward.
“For the first two periods, we tried to move younger guys into some of those roles to give them some experienced opportunities,” Sullivan said. “Give us a chance to watch these guys in those circumstances. We used Labs (Noah Laba) a lot more. We used Otter in that circumstance…
“That’s part of it; putting these guys in certain situations and seeing what they're capable of. That was part of that process.”
The Rangers will be back in action on Saturday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Penguins.