The window of opportunity for Benoit Pouliot with the Rangers is quickly beginning to close.
For the first time this season, Pouliot was made a healthy scratch in the Rangers’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils on Saturday night at the Garden. In his place was 20-year-old J.T. Miller, just called up on Friday.
“Ben has been given a real fair opportunity and hasn’t played to ours and his expectations,” coach Alain Vigneault said before the game. “So [Saturday] we’re going to give the opportunity to somebody else.”
The No. 4-overall pick from the 2005 draft signed a one-year, $1.3 million deal with the Rangers this offseason, and has two goals and three assists in 29 games. Early in the season, when Vigneault was asked about the struggling Pouliot, he used the analogy that a player on gets “so many kicks at the can.”
Asked directly about that line, Vigneault didn’t want to get too carried away in terms of discussing Pouliot’s future.
“I wouldn’t want to look at the overall picture, I’m more focused right now on a game-to-game basis,” Vigneault said. “For this game right now, I feel that this gives us the best four lines that we can put together.”
Miller played an assertive game on a talented and fast third line with Derick Brassard and Carl Hagelin, having two distinctive scoring chances, one in the first and one in the second period, both denied by good saves from Martin Brodeur. This is Miller’s second chance to stick with the big club, as he was sent down on Nov. 26. He played three games for AHL Hartford, notching a goal and an assist.
“It happens in your career, there are bumps like that, so you try to get used to them and try to fit in wherever I may be,” Miller said. “I’m thankful for the opportunity here.”
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist will start the first back-to-back set of this season when he gets the nod Sunday night against the Capitals at the Garden. It will be the third in a row since Lundqvist signed his seven-year, $59.5 million contract extension on Wednesday.
He debuted a new mask on Saturday, one that is planned to be worn only with the team’s Heritage jersey, as he had it match in color.
Defenseman Justin Falk reentered the lineup after being a healthy scratch for Thursday’s 3-1 win in Buffalo. After a rough-and-tumble battle with Patrik Elias in the second period, Falk was challenged to a fight by Devils’ tough-guy Cam Janssen, and declined.
Two minutes later, Janssen scored a goal off his skate to cut the Rangers lead to 2-1.