The separated shoulder sustained by Matt Beleskey and the concussion incurred by Boo Nieves will pin salary-cap charges on the Rangers through the early weeks of the season.
Injured players cannot be placed on waivers, so that means Beleskey, who suffered a shoulder separation fighting with New Jersey’s Eric Gryba on Monday, will be placed on IR during a recovery that may take up to a month. The same applies to Nieves, sidelined indefinitely after taking a blow to the head from Gryba in New Jersey one week earlier.
The Rangers will be hit with a daily prorated amount of the $1.9 million cap hit they inherited from the Bruins for as long as Beleskey remains on IR. The Bruins are responsible for the other $1.9 million as per conditions of last season’s deal in which Rick Nash went to Boston. Beleskey would carry a cap charge of $875,000 if waived through to the AHL Wolf Pack. There is a $1.025 million allowance for contracts of players waived out of the NHL.
On Nieves, who remains in the league concussion protocol, the Blueshirts will be charged a prorated $316,750 for as long as he remains on IR. That number is based on the number of days the center spent on the 2017-18 NHL roster. There would be no cap charge against Nieves if he is waived.
The Blueshirts nevertheless are projected to start the season with approximately $3.4 million of space.
It was kind of dozy most of the way at the Garden for Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime defeat to the Islanders on Anthony Beauvillier’s goal 53 seconds in, a game in which few Blueshirts distinguished themselves. Mika Zibanejad scored twice, once on the power play from his office in the left circle, and Pavel Buchnevich got the other goal, also with the man-advantage.
Coach David Quinn shifted Filip Chytil out of the middle onto right wing with Zibanejad and Chris Kreider during the third period after No. 72 had skated between Ryan Spooner and Mats Zuccarello through the first 40 minutes.
Brett Howden was on the first power-play unit with Kreider and Zibanejad up-front and Buchnevich and Kevin Shattenkirk on the points.
Jimmy Vesey struggled again and was limited to 13:14 including just two shifts over the final 11:12 of the third and the brief OT.
Henrik Lundqvist went the distance in his final tune-up. The Blueshirts will send a somewhat skeleton squad to Philadelphia for Thursday’s preseason finale.
The Rangers featured a reasonable facsimile of their Oct. 4 opening lineup in the match, with just Kevin Hayes, Jesper Fast, perhaps Cody McLeod and probably Brendan Smith the only projected members of the varsity to sit this one out. Jesper Fast, pulled late in the second period of Monday’s game against the Devils for “precautionary reasons,” said he does not know why he was pulled and is good to go when needed. He took part in the morning training camp session.
Necessity was the mother of invention Monday when Kreider, on a two-on-one through the neutral zone with Hayes in the three-on-three overtime, banked the puck off the right boards all the way back to Marek Mazanec. The goaltender then sent a long pass to Hayes, whose delay move set up Vinni Lettieri — who came on for Kreider on a change—for the winner.
”Hayzee was screaming at me, but I had no choice,” Kreider told The Post.
No choice?
“Both my legs were cramping,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to make it across the ice to the bench.”