The New York Rangers will make two surprising scratches in Tuesday night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.
Despite just being called up from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, Brennan Othmann will be scratched out of the lineup after playing just one game for the Rangers.
Since even before the start of training camp, Mike Sullivan has been in constant contact with Othmann regarding what steps he needs to take in his development.
While there are aspects of Othmann’s game that are encouraging, Sullivan still feels there’s another step for the young forward to take.
“This is the conversation that him and I have had throughout the course of training camp, before training camp started,” Sullivan said. “I sat with him after the Lehigh Valley, the rookie games, and trying to define for him what the expectation is, and how we could potentially earn a roster spot. And I think the most important element of it is just attention to detail, reliability, knowing your job, doing your job, play away from the puck.
“That was where his focus, I think, needed to be. We're looking for that element as an important aspect of him earning a roster spot. In the game the other night, there were some good things that he did. There were also some moments where attention to detail could have helped us keep the puck out of the net and things of that nature. We'll continue to work with Otter with respect to those details and what those mean.”
Jonny Brodzinski is set to fill in for Othmann.
Meanwhile, Matthew Robertson is expected to be scratched out of the lineup, with Urho Vaakanainen taking his place.
The play of Robertson had been a pleasant surprise for the Rangers, as he made the team out of training camp, and eventually carved himself a role after Carson Soucy went down with an upper-body injury.
Rangers Aim To Create More Balance With New Lineup Changes
In an attempt to balance out the New York Rangers’ forward core, Mike Sullivan drastically changed the lines ahead of their game against the Calgary Flames on Sunday.
Sullivan pointed toward the point of consistency for his reasoning behind taking Robertson out of the lineup.
“We feel like we have seven defensemen that are very capable. We thought Robo was playing extremely well, bringing an element of physicality, playing with confidence, playing on his toes,” Sullivan said. “He was defending rush well. He had a good stick. He was making good decisions, when to pinch, when not to pinch, good decisions with the puck. There was a simplicity to his game. There was a physical edge to his game that we felt was deserving of him being in the lineup.
“As a young player, for me, the biggest thing is trying to bring that consistently. We felt that the last couple of games that his game hasn't been up to that level. We'll work with him. Quinnie sits with those guys almost daily…Vaaks is another guy that is very capable also. These are competitive guys that all want to be in the lineup every night. We're trying to make the best decisions for the team to give us the best chance to win. There's a process that we go through after every game and evaluating and assessing what we have, and we make decisions from there.”
We’ll have to see if these lineup changes will stick past Tuesday night’s game in Vancouver.