Rangers coach Alain Vigneault could spend the upcoming Olympic break mulling a difficult decision.
Vigneault said injured forward Derek Dorsett — out since Jan. 3 with a broken left fibula — will undergo an X-ray on Friday and the coach expects him to be ready to return to action when the Rangers play their first post-Olympic game against the Blackhawks on Feb. 27.
“He’s coming along,” Vigneault said after Thursday’s practice. “He’ll be fine. … He’s on schedule for after the break. I don’t think he’d be ready before.”
Dorsett, who originally was expected to miss four to six weeks, has since been replaced on the fourth line by Dan Carcillo, who the day after Dorsett was injured, was acquired from the Kings for a conditional seventh-round pick, which returns to the Rangers if he remains on the NHL roster until the final day of the regular season.
Even when Dorsett returns, Carcillo’s solid play — including Wednesday’s game-winning goal — could allow him to keep his spot on the fourth line. The Rangers are 8-3 since Carcillo entered the lineup.
“One of our strengths in the last while here is our balance,” Vigneault said. “[The fourth line] gets on the scoresheet, it’s a bonus. And they’ve done that. [Wednesday] they got us the winning goal. I like our overall balance.”
The Islanders went 0-for-4 on the power play in 6:03 of ice time in Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Rangers and have converted only 2-of-16 opportunities in four games against the Blueshirts this season.
Vigneault gave much of the credit to Henrik Lundqvist, while Lundqvist looked to a defensive unit now ranked 10th in the league on the penalty kill.
“You could tell they have a lot of skill, the way they move the puck, their top guys, they’re really tricky, but I love the way we played them,” said Lundqvist. “We played them hard, where we stayed close and didn’t give them too much room on the power play. That was an important part of [Wednesday’s] win.”
Lundqvist is expected to make his fourth straight start in goal, having allowed two goals or fewer in eight of the past nine games. In the 11 games prior to that, Lundqvist had allowed three goals or more in 10 of the games.