NHL

Filip Chytil a healthy scratch again amid Rangers lineup shuffle

By
Social Links for Larry Brooks
Published Feb. 27, 2022
Updated Feb. 28, 2022, 10:07 a.m. ET

Filip Chytil sat out his second straight as a healthy scratch for Sunday night’s 5-2 Garden defeat to the Canucks with head coach Gerard Gallant opting to go with the same lineup he had used in both Thursday night’s 4-1 victory over the Capitals and Saturday afternoon’s 1-0 defeat in Pittsburgh.

“Basically we played two really good games, the last couple of games the guys played really well so I don’t want to change the lineup,” Gallant said before the game. “I like the way our team has played.

“He’s [probably] not playing tonight but it has nothing to do with him. It’s about the guys that played and played really well. That’s why I’m not changing the lineup,”

Chytil, who missed the Washington game with a non-COVID related illness, has also been left adrift by Gallant’s decision to create a checking-oriented third line with Kevin Rooney between Barclay Goodrow and Ryan Reaves.

Morgan Barron, who has taken Chytil’s spot in the lineup, has played on the fourth line with Greg McKegg and Julien Gauthier. Barron, who got 8:48 and 7:41 of ice time, respectively, has a different role than the one Chytil has been accustomed to throughout his career. Off of the team’s performance in this one, it is likely that Chytil will return on Wednesday when the Blues come to town.

Filip Chytil
Filip Chytil missed his second straight game for the Rangers. AP

The 22-year-old Czech has recorded six points (2-4) in his past 19 games and 12 points (5-7) in 41 games through the season in which he has been unable to gain traction. Gallant deferred further public examination of Chytil until the team reconvenes for practice on Tuesday.

“I’d sooner talk about whether he’s playing tonight or not but when a guy is like this, I’d sooner talk about it Tuesday, when we meet again,” the coach said.

Alexandar Georgiev, who didn’t get the help necessary, surrendered four goals on 33 shots in his first start since Jan. 27. The Bulgarian-born netminder has gone 1-5 in his last six starts with a 3.89 GAA and .868 save percentage.

“I mean, it’s been a month — and that’s on us — but I was more disappointed with some of our back-checks than with Georgie to be honest with you,” Gallant said. “We didn’t work hard enough on a couple of their goals coming back and it hurt us.

Rangers
Alexandar Georgiev Corey Sipkin

“I always say, you work hard coming back, that’s the sign of a team. When you bust your ass backchecking good things happen and when you don’t, it goes in your net.”

Zac Jones skated in his third straight and eighth of the past nine contests while Patrik Nemeth sat out for the second straight and ninth of the last 10. Gallant said that Nemeth, whose wife, Towe gave birth to a healthy baby boy on Friday, is back with the team. The Swede previously had been sidelined for a stretch with believed aftereffects from COVID-19.

Libor Hajek was a healthy scratch for the sixth straight game after getting a run of five straight in the lineup.

Sunday’s game marked the Rangers’ first regulation home defeat to a club that is currently on the outside looking in on the playoffs.

Blueshirts’ streak of surrendering two goals or fewer ended at seven straight. The last time the club matched that streak came early in the 2015-16 season when Henrik Lundqvist (seven starts) and Antti Raanta limited opponents to two or fewer in 10 straight from Oct. 18-Nov. 10, 2015.

The Rangers had been 9-0-1 when playing their third game in four nights. Team is home Wednesday against the Blues and Friday against the Devils before departing on a four-game trip to Winnipeg, Minnesota, St. Louis and Dallas that ends on March 12.