The Rangers are dealing with a flu bug going through their dressing room, and it has made key forwards Derek Stepan and Martin St. Louis game-time decisions for Monday’s Garden match against the Coyotes.
Neither Stepan nor St. Louis took part in the Rangers’ full morning skate, and coach Alain Vigneault said the team was likely to call up J.T. Miller from AHL Hartford on an emergency basis.
“Right now, we are probably in the process of calling on emergency J.T., just in case,” Vigneault said after the skate, his team having just swept a three-game road trip to vault into third in the Metropolitan Division.
Vigneault also has forward Ryan Haggerty on the roster, but it’s unlikely the recent college signee, who has been with the team for a week, would make his NHL debut.
The Rangers also played Saturday’s 2-0 win over the Devils in Newark with fourth-line forward Derek Dorsett, the first one on the team to succumb to the stomach bug, being replaced at the time by Dan Carcillo. Dorsett took part in Monday’s morning practice, and seemed to be in good spirits.
“Both those guys [Stepan and St. Louis] and Dorse are all game-time decisions,” Vigneault said. “We’ll try and sort this out as the day moves forward.”
The flu bug is nothing new to NHL dressing rooms, and Vigneault is looking to his staff, led by trainer Jim Ramsay, to sort it out.
“We talked about it before and we talk about it before every season starts,” Vigneault said. “Rammer and his team, they’re the best. They know when something like that happens, you keep those guys away and there’s nothing more you can do.”
There was positive news regarding the health of young defenseman John Moore, who was concussed during Friday’s rousing 3-1 win in Columbus when Blue Jackets forward Blake Comeau put a shoulder into his chin.
“He felt much better today,” Vigneault said. “He’s going to follow the concussion protocol there. He rode the bike today, and he was feeling good today.”
Moore was replaced on Saturday by Raphael Diaz, who made his Rangers debut after being obtained March 5 in a trade with the Canucks in exchange for a fifth-round pick. Diaz played the right side on the third pair with another right-handed defenseman, Kevin Klein, who had played on the right since coming to the team in the Michael Del Zotto trade with the Predators in late January.
The two were going to switch sides for Monday so Vigneault could see whether Diaz has the versatility to play both positions going forward.
“This morning I talked to Diaz, and he’s going to play the left side,” Vigneault said. “We need to find out if he can play there. Obviously, our three right-handed shots are more comfortable on the right side, so we need to find out if he can do it.
“He said he has played a few shifts [on the left] here and there, so it shouldn’t be too big of a deal.”
Before Henrik Lundqvist gets his fifth start in a row and his 12th start in the past 13, he will be honored with a pregame ceremony for passing Mike Richter on the franchise’s all-time wins list, as well as Eddie Giacomin on the team’s all-time shutout list, both achievements coming on the road in the past week.
“It will be a special night for me,” said Lundqvist, whose parents came in from Sweden for the events and who was also named the NHL’s Second Star of the week. “Last week was very special to me. Being up there with those guys and breaking two records, you just look at the list of goalies that have played for this organization, it’s surreal. But at the same time, I try to push myself every day to get better, and hopefully there is a lot more to give.”