"No matter the circumstance, it's always a weird feeling when you play with someone for so long, and then they're not in the lineup for whatever reason, Zibanejad said after Wednesday's game. It's different, but we have to keep playing."
"I don't think so, Sullivan said. I thought we played hard. I think our guys had the right intentions. I thought we had a decent start to the game. I don't think that had an impact."
Mika Zibanejad is the longest-tenured New York Rangers player, now in his tenth season. Zibanejad experienced two iterations of The Letter, played on the franchise's best regular-season team, and witnessed both organizational triumph and dysfunction. The 2023-24 Rangers amassed 114 points and fell two wins short of the Stanley Cup Final. Several expected core players departed in recent seasons, including Barclay Goodrow, Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kakko, Chris Kreider and now Artemi Panarin. Panarin was held out of the Rangers' 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders and will remain sidelined until president and GM Chris Drury trades him. Zibanejad described the absence of longtime teammates as a strange feeling but emphasized the need to keep playing. Head coach Mike Sullivan said holding Panarin out did not affect the team's effort and that the players had the right intentions and a decent start.
Read at www.amny.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]