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The Rangers were forced to finish Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the Devils without one of their key forwards on one of their most productive lines. 

Rookie Noah Laba — their third-line center who’s also carved out a role on the penalty kill — was ruled out with a lower-body injury at the start of the third period. It’s unclear when the injury occurred, but Laba logged 8:40 of ice time before exiting. His final shift occurred with the Blueshirts on the power play. 

Urho Vaakanainen also exited with an upper-body injury and was ruled out at the start of the second period, forcing the Rangers to spend the rest of the game with just five defensemen. Head coach Mike Sullivan said postgame that both were being evaluated, and he didn’t know if they’d travel for Thursday’s game against the Blue Jackets to complete the back-to-back. 

“It is what it is,” Sullivan said when asked about the Rangers needing to adjust on the fly. “I mean, it’s just part of the game. Every team goes through it. We have capable guys on the bench. We gotta move people around, but we have capable guys.” 

Laba, who has collected nine goals and 21 points during his first NHL season, has recently skated between Tye Kartye and Conor Sheary. If Laba misses time, it could force the Blueshirts into a dilemma at center.

Adam Edstrom, currently centering the fourth line, hasn’t logged consistent minutes there since he played in Sweden until recently — skating there over Juuso Parssinen, who has been a healthy scratch. J.T. Miller has been skating on the second line with Vincent Trocheck. And the Blueshirts traded Sam Carrick to Buffalo ahead of the deadline.

Miller filled the spot on the third line to finish the game against the Devils, and that group managed to produce a goal during its first shift together. Sheary deposited a rebound off a Matthew Robertson shot into the back of the net, with Miller picking up the secondary assist. 

Less than two weeks ago, after their previous loss to the Devils when Jack Hughes and New Jersey went a perfect 3-for-3 with the man advantage, Sullivan didn’t mince words when talking about the Rangers penalty kill. There was a “lack of urgency,” he said. They were screening their own goaltender. They didn’t box out in front of their net. 

And then Wednesday night, it all happened again. The Devils collected two more power-play goals, and the Blueshirts have allowed opponents to score 11 power-play goals across their past 11 games. Their penalty-kill unit, which has allotted some time for “learning on the job” to new pieces such as Kartye, sits 25th in the NHL at 77.6 percent. 

“It hasn’t been good for a while,” Sullivan said, “and a lot of it boils down to details, knowing your job, doing your job, and then it’s urgency and compete level at our net front. … There’s a lot involved, but right now, as a group, we don’t have a whole lot of confidence on it, but for a lot of the year, it was pretty solid.”

Jonathan Quick made his 22nd start of the season for the Rangers and made 33 saves.