The Rangers still had a game to play that night when word got around Friday morning that captain Jacob Trouba was being held out of their matchup with the Penguins for the purpose of “roster management.”
Anyone in any locker room knows that a proclamation like that usually means it was said player’s last time in that locker room.
Chris Kreider, the Blueshirts’ longest-tenured player, opted to keep the focus solely on the game at hand.
“Yeah, but not today,” Kreider said when asked if he had anything to say about Trouba’s situation before the Rangers’ eventual 4-2 win over the Penguins at the Garden. “Today, we’ve got to focus on winning a hockey game.”
The Rangers have been fielding questions about outside noise for the past few weeks, but this was the first significant move the organization has made since the team stumbled through a 1-6 stretch.
Many Rangers echoed Kreider’s sentiment in their own way, noting that the team has to keep things that are out of their control out of sight and out of mind in order to approach the next game as needed.
Still, the human aspect of coming to terms with the likelihood that Trouba, their teammate of five seasons and captain for three, is moving on, easily sneaks out.
“That’s a decision between the team and him, from what I’m understanding,” said Mika Zibanejad, who added that he can’t say it hasn’t been tough. “As a player, as a teammate, as a friend and human being, obviously we love him to death and what he’s done and what he does for us.”
Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette spoke with Trouba, the Rangers leadership group and the team as a whole in the wake of Friday’s news.
The decision regarding Trouba, the veteran head coach said, was one he made in collaboration with president and general manager Chris Drury.
It was not meant to be a message to the locker room, but Laviolette believes the team is aware of where they are.
“I think everybody’s understanding of where we’ve been for the last month and how we’ve played,” he said. “We can’t continue down that road or we’ll find ourselves out of the playoffs.”
Igor Shesterkin earned the starting nod Friday night against the Penguins, turning aside 20 of the 22 shots he faced.
Victor Mancini was back in the Rangers lineup for the first time since Nov. 23, replacing Trouba alongside Zac Jones.
On Thursday, assistant GM Ryan Martin informed Mancini he’d be coming back up to play in his 11th game this season.
Mancini had been logging a lot of minutes in Hartford, playing on its top defensive pair and in all situations.
“Just in the defensive zone, I feel like my play when I get my head up, vision is a big part of my game and making sure that I can make breakouts clean,” Mancini said of what he focused on with the Wolf Pack. “Get the puck on to players’ tape. We know we can put it up the wall, right? But if we can get out of the zone clean, it’s going to be a lot easier. Just making sure I’m getting pucks to the net in the offensive zone.
“You don’t have to score from up there, but you can create a lot of second chances and create a lot of chaos.”
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