It has been a rough couple days for Ryan Lindgren.
Two days after getting into a fight that cut open his face, and one day after having a phone hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety, Lindgren blocked a huge shot from P.K. Subban and eventually had to leave the Rangers’ 6-3 win over the Devils at the Garden on Thursday night.
Coach David Quinn said the 21-year-old was “day-to-day” with a lower-body injury. Lindgren blocked the shot just four minutes into the first period and didn’t leave for the locker room until there were just under six minutes left in the second.
“It just got tight on him,” Quinn said.
On Thursday morning, Lindgren had been open about his fight Tuesday with Nazem Kadri, saying he should have been ready for the attack from the Colorado forward. It came after Lindgren laid a huge (and unpenalized) hit on Joonas Donskoi, which prompted that phone call with the league, but didn’t earn him any suspension.
“It was kind of dumb by me, I have to be a little smarter, knowing that someone is probably going to come after me with a hit like that,” Lindgren said Thursday morning, with a couple of gnarly stitches under his right eye. “He got the jump on me real quick and started pounding away before I could really grab him, or defend myself.”
While Igor Shesterkin made his second straight start to follow his NHL debut on Tuesday, it was also the second straight game with Henrik Lundqvist backing up and Alexandar Georgiev as the healthy scratch.
“These guys understand that we have goalies we believe in,” Quinn said. “It’s a different situation for all of us, and it’s new to all of us. I think we’re all learning on the fly, how to handle it. [Georgiev] will be ready when his number is called, which is how he has always approached it.”
Artemi Panarin scored his team-leading 24th goal of the season at 5:42 of the first period, and added two more assists to give him 61 points through the first 43 games. That enabled him to pass Wayne Gretzky, who had held the franchise record with 59 points through his first 43 games with the team in 1996-97.
Panarin is the sixth Ranger in franchise history to register 60 or more points within the team’s first 43 games of a season, the first since Jaromir Jagr in 2005-06.
Quinn did not hear from Larry David after Thursday morning, when he fired shots back at the creator of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” who had been critical of Quinn on a radio appearance Wednesday.
“Listen, I’ve watched a few bad ‘Seinfelds’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasms,’ too,” Quinn said to many laughs. “I still love Larry David and his work.”
A decision likely would be made sometime after Thursday’s game regarding defenseman Libor Hajek, close to returning from the right-knee injury that has kept him out since Dec. 5. The club had discussed the likely possibility of him playing a few games at AHL Hartford before returning to the Rangers.
