Filip Chytil headed to the locker room with an upper-body injury after he collided with Evan Rodrigues in the second period of Sunday’s 3-2 loss in Pittsburgh and did not return.
Head coach David Quinn didn’t have an immediate update on the 21-year-old center after the game, but it is likely that he’ll have to miss some time.
“Chytil will be evaluated [Monday] so we’ll know a lot more [Monday],” he said.
With the Rangers up 1-0 just over halfway through the middle frame, Chytil carried the puck into the Penguins’ zone before he was stonewalled by Rodrigues and hit the ice hard. He was slow to get up, but remained on the bench for a bit before going to the locker room.
In 8:23 of ice time, Chytil recorded two shots on goal and a blocked shot.
Without Chytil, Quinn was forced to jumble the lines. Brett Howden was elevated from the fourth to the third line to center Phil Di Giuseppe and Kaapo Kakko.
“It’s always hard when you lose a player mid-game like that,” Mika Zibanejad said. “It kind of mixes up the lines a little bit. I thought we did a lot of good things in the third and just one mistake and they take advantage of it. We can’t allow that to happen.”
Losing Chytil for any amount of time in the condensed 56-game season is less than ideal. He has been the team’s highest-producing center so far with two goals and an assist through the first five games. Anchoring the Rangers’ third line alongside Di Giuseppe and Kakko, Chytil has been a much-needed spark for the lineup.
“Just a real maturity, a growth,” Quinn said of what he’s seen from Chytil. “For the first two years we were here together, he was kind of — I don’t want to say happy to be here — but feeling his way. The thing I really like is he knows he belongs. I think he’s ready to take an important role on this team. He’s showing more emotions, there’s just a different swagger to him that we hadn’t seen.
“Disappointing what happened tonight but we’ll see what the end result is [Monday].”
Quinn opted to take Brendan Lemieux and Jack Johnson, who had played all four previous games this season, out of the lineup for Sunday’s rematch.
After showing he had zero tolerance for careless penalties when he benched Tony DeAngelo following his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the season opener against the Islanders, Quinn continued that trend with Lemieux. Roughly halfway through the second period of the 4-3 shootout loss Friday, Lemieux took a tripping penalty with the Rangers up 3-1.
Colin Blackwell was inserted in his place on the fourth line Sunday and recorded a goal in his Rangers debut.
“Lemieux is fine to play, we want to get other people in,” Quinn said before the loss. “I just think it’s after what happened the other night, I think he can play better too and I didn’t love the penalty he took. But listen he’s a big part of what we got going on here, I know he’s going to get back in and do what he’s capable of doing.”
Brendan Smith replaced Johnson, skating with DeAngelo on the third defensive pairing.
Three of the Rangers’ five games so far this season have been decided by one goal.
“It happens two games in a row where we have a lead and can’t close it out,” Zibanejad said. “I think it’s a mix of things that we have to do better and learn from, and you got to learn quick. It’s 56 games, we can’t afford losing these points.”
The Rangers held the Penguins to a season-low 19 shots on goal in Sunday’s loss.
