Brady Skjei thought it was “hilarious” when he saw his jersey on a “ Saturday Night Live” skit.
The Rangers’ second-year defenseman was watching the show late Saturday night with fellow blueliner Kevin Shattenkirk when the skit came on. It featured Chance the Rapper, who was hosting the show, playing a television sideline reporter who normally covers the Knicks filling in on a hockey game. He made jokes about how cold he was standing at ice level, how he didn’t know any of the players names or how to pronounce them. Then cast member Alex Moffat came on dressed as a player for an “interview.”
He turned around and his blue Rangers jersey had Skjei on the back, with Chance the Rapper saying, “That’s a S, a K, and a J all next to each other, and that’s a nope.”
Skjei said he knew there was going to be a skit about the Rangers, but didn’t know his name was going to be used. Soon thereafter, he got about 30 text messages.
“It was a pretty cool experience,” Skjei said before Sunday night’s 3-0 win over the Senators.
Pronounced “Shay,” the name is Norwegian in origin. Skjei went to Norway for the first time this summer for Mats Zuccarello’s charity soccer tournament and he said everyone knew how to pronounce it. Skjei said he is a fan of Chance the Rapper, but has never spoken with him. Skjei did invite him to come to a game, saying, “I’ll give him my tickets.”
Center David Desharnais was a healthy scratch for the first time this season, replaced by Paul Carey. Desharnais, 31, signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the Rangers this summer, and was supposed to be a scratch against the Panthers in Florida on Nov. 4, but it didn’t happen because Boo Nieves came down with a case of food poisoning.
“He’s a hard-working young man who’s got some offensive capabilities,” coach Alain Vigneault said of Desharnais. “He’s not very big, so sometimes in the ‘D’ zone, he can get outmuscled a little bit in one-on-one situations. But he’s in good position, and he’s working hard. That’s what we expect from him.”
Vigneault added that “Davey is obviously getting a little older, but he’s got a good understanding of the game and he’s working hard.” And Desharnais knew what he needed to work on.
“As a third line, it doesn’t matter if you don’t score, but don’t get scored on,” he said. “That’s the big thing. Maybe if we can avoid that, it’ll help.”
Jimmy Vesey took the full cage off his helmet after wearing it for two games following his teeth-in-lip episode Nov. 11. He still has not gotten the caps put on his two front teeth, which had been lodged in his lower lip
when he a took a skate-boot to the face.
Vigneault moved J.T. Miller back to center, between Michael Grabner and Mats Zuccarello, while Vesey went down to the fourth line with Nieves and Carey. Jesper Fast, a favorite of Vigneault’s, went up to skate with Rick Nash and Kevin Hayes. The only line that stayed together was the “KZB” line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich.