Nick Bonino intends to wear a neck guard for Saturday afternoon’s game in Nashville and will thus become the first Ranger to wear added protection in the aftermath of the death of Adam Johnson, who was slashed across the throat with a skate blade in an Oct. 28 game in the United Kingdom.
“The hockey world was shocked by what happened,” the 35-year-old center told The Post after wearing the neck guard during Friday’s practice at the club’s training facility. “If there’s even a little bit of a chance of protecting yourself I think that’s always smart, so I’m going to start wearing it now.”
Bonino said that he had originally placed an order for undershirt one-piece neck protection the day after the tragedy had occurred.
But NHL equipment companies have not been able to cope with the demand.
There is a glut of back-orders on file throughout the league.
Bonino procured the neck guard on his own, through Amazon.
“Cas worked on it and was able to patch in some cut resistant material so I’d be able to wear it, he did a great job with it,” Bonino said, referring to the Rangers head equipment manager Acacio Marques. “I’ll stick with this until maybe down the road we can get those one-pieces.
“For now it’s a little bit cumbersome but it doesn’t bother me. It was comfortable. Why not?”
Jonny Brodzinksi got 1:37 of ice time on the power play’s second unit against the Red Wings on Wednesday in his first game since his recall from the AHL Wolf Pack.
That serves as a contrast to the 2:57 of power play time the winger had received in his first 45 games as a Ranger over the past four seasons.
“I love his speed, I love his compete, I love the fact that he shoots the puck and he’ll bring the puck to the net,” said head coach Peter Laviolette. “And down at the American Hockey League level, he was one of the top offensive players.
“He was on the No. 1 power play, No. 1 line, maybe No. 1 in [AHL] scoring when he got called up. And so for me, when you recall a person, because you’re looking for something, I think you have to put them in a position where they can be successful.”
Indeed, Brodzinski remains atop the AHL leaderboard with 25 points (11-14). His five PPGs rank third, one off the lead.
He was summoned to Broadway in the wake of the left leg injury sustained by Kaapo Kakko on Monday that will sideline the Finn for a significant amount of time.
“Had we needed a checker or a penalty killer we might have gone in another direction and that person would have been inserted into that role,” Laviolette said. “This is an opportunity for him to come up and show what he can do.”
Brodzinski has never recorded an NHL power-play point in 20:25 of man-advantage time throughout his 103-game career that included stays in Los Angeles and Anaheim.
You can call the coach “Country,” following his five-and-a-half year tenure behind the Nashville bench from 2014-15 through midway through 2019-20.
“I had never listened to country music before I got there. Not one song ever in my life, except for hearing the classics or whatever,” Laviolette said. “But when we first got hired, it was June and there was the summer awards show. I didn’t know anything about it.
“So I put on the country music channel all day and I listened and I could figure out who the artists were and by the time it was over I actually loved it. That’s all I listen to now — it’s country.
“Once in a while I’ll go back to my high school years, Bob Seger, Tom Petty and those types of bands,” he said. “But the most part, it’s country.”
The Blueshirts were beaten by the Predators 4-1 at the Garden on Oct. 19, a defeat that elicited a thumbs-down response from Laviolette in its immediate aftermath.
“They compete, they work hard and any team that doesn’t do that — if that’s not the minimum you bring, you’re going to have a long and difficult night,” the coach said Friday. “They’re a team that gets what they earn by work ethic.”
The Rangers are at the Garden for a 6 p.m. start Sunday against San Jose after Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. faceoff.
