{"id":538765,"date":"2026-03-22T15:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/538765\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T15:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T15:04:10","slug":"two-rangers-to-miss-multiple-games-with-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/538765\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Rangers to miss multiple games with injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rangers will be without Noah Laba and Urho Vaakanainen for the next bit.<\/p>\n

Laba, the Blueshirts\u2019 third-line center, and Vaakanainen, a third-pairing defenseman, are week to week with lower- and upper-body injuries, respectively. <\/p>\n

Both exited the loss to the Devils on Wednesday early and didn\u2019t travel with the team to Columbus on Thursday to complete the back-to-back. <\/p>\n

When asked if neither would need a stint on injured reserve, head coach Mike Sullivan said, \u201cRight now, they\u2019re going to be week to week.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in the present, it forced the Blueshirts to continue to adjust. J.T. Miller skated between Conor Sheary and Tye Kartye on the third line again. Taylor Raddysh was bumped up to the line with Vincent Trocheck and Will Cuylle again, too. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019ll also force the Blueshirts to pivot on the penalty kill, where Laba had carved out a role during his rookie season in addition to the nine goals and 21 points he has contributed offensively. Vaakanainen, who has appeared in just 33 games, was replaced by Connor Mackey on the third defensive pairing during the Rangers practice in Tarrytown on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"NoahNoah Laba makes a pass during the Rangers\u2019 loss to the Kings on March 16, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

The absences of Laba and Vaakanainen also marked the latest injury hits the Blueshirts have absorbed this season. <\/p>\n

Miller has been on injured reserve twice. Defenseman Adam Fox logged extended time on long-term injured reserve. Both goaltenders \u2014 Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick \u2014 have missed games, too. <\/p>\n

All of that has resulted in constant shuffling for Sullivan and his combinations. Laba, who also missed three games in early January, and Vaakanainen just forced that all to happen again. <\/p>\n

When asked about the Rangers defense recently, and whether they need to improve anything with the possibility for goaltender Dylan Garand to make his NHL debut this week<\/a>, Sullivan said they\u2019re \u201ccapable of being way stingier.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Blueshirts have allowed at least four goals in each of their past three losses, a streak that directly followed their run of points in eight of nine games out of the Olympic break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it starts with the decisions we make with the puck, because if you turn the puck over in the wrong areas of the rink, you don\u2019t take care of the puck, it\u2019s very difficult to get into structure,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cYou chase the game. And so I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve managed the puck nearly as well in the last few games as we were coming out of the break, for example.<\/p>\n

\" Urho Vaakanainen Corey Sipkin for New York Post<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we put a stretch of games together where we were winning games, it wasn\u2019t by accident. I think there were certain things that were taking place that were giving us the chance to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s game against the Jets starts a stretch where the Rangers will play nine of their next 10 games at home, with the lone road game Wednesday against the Maple Leafs. <\/p>\n

Mika Zibanejad will skate in his 999th career game Sunday, and his 1,000th, barring an injury, is set to occur Monday \u2014 against his former team in the Senators, too. <\/p>\n

He has recorded 10 points across his past seven games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rangers will be without Noah Laba and Urho Vaakanainen for the next bit. Laba, the Blueshirts\u2019 third-line…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4823,385,99],"class_list":["post-538765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}