ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Rangers’ contempt for Carolina forward Sebastian Aho’s unnecessary hit on Adam Fox, which landed the club’s star defenseman on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury, was apparent both in the moment and after the fact.
That was the only positive takeaway of the Blueshirts’ 48 hours prior to their shootout loss to the Wild on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center, in which news broke that Fox would miss a minimum of 10 games and Filip Chytil would miss the next three while on injured reserve.
“I think it shows that we have each other’s backs,” Ryan Lindgren, Fox’s longtime D partner, told The Post on Saturday. “It seems like we’ve always been like that where we see something we don’t like, we’re going to jump in there for each other. I think that just speaks to our leadership and just the kind of guys we have in this group. We’re there for each other and we’ve always got each other’s backs.”
Fox did look like he was trying to get out of the way of Aho at the last second as he skated down the middle of the Hurricanes’ zone Thursday night.
Their legs got crossed, and with Aho standing up straighter, seemingly prepared for the contact, Fox took the brunt of it and went tumbling to the ice holding his knee.
Fox exchanged some words with an official, looking for what was an obvious interference call, before skating off to the locker room on his own power.
Intentional or not, malicious or not, the Rangers saw it all the same: Their top defenseman was injured on an avoidable play. And they acted accordingly.
Alexis Lafreniere essentially begged Aho to answer for his actions.
He bumped into the Finn in the neutral zone, nudged him while exchanging words then grabbed onto Aho’s jersey by the neck to instigate.
It prompted Andrei Svechnikov to come over and intervene, but Lafreniere continued to yap from the Rangers bench.
According to John Giannone, who was perched between the benches for MSG Network, Lafreniere pointed out to the Canes that they went after the Rangers’ best player.
“Just figured I’d ask him for a fight,” Lafreniere said Saturday. “He didn’t want to fight, so I kept playing and we got a big win.”
When the Rangers didn’t get the on-ice repercussions they wanted, captain Jacob Trouba took to his postgame interview to send a message.
“I’ve got to fight every time I do something, so I figure [Aho] should probably have to answer for it, too, but he didn’t feel that way,” Trouba quipped after the game.
The Rangers haven’t always had that immediate response on the ice in those types of situations, but there was zero hesitation here.
Earlier in the season, there was a hit on rookie Will Cuylle that went unchecked.
Not that it should ever matter who the player is, but Laviolette noted that there was an emotional aspect to the Rangers losing Fox and Chytil, who are two key players in the Rangers’ lineup.
Their depth will be tested going forward, but the teams’ emotional response passed with flying colors.
Oh, and their next meeting with the Hurricanes is Jan. 2 at Madison Square Garden.
