PITTSBURGH — Shedding Barclay Goodrow for at the very least the rest of the first-round collection towards the Penguins is an enormous blow to the Rangers for a lot of causes.
Not solely does the utility ahead give head coach Gerard Gallant flexibility along with his lineup, however Goodrow brings Stanley Cup-winning expertise to an in any other case younger and largely inexperienced group. He's additionally one of many Rangers’ prime penalty-killers and serves as a driving power on the forecheck within the backside six.
Goodrow suffered a lower-body damage in Recreation 1 that needed to be comparatively critical to immediate Gallant to insinuate that the 29-year-old wouldn’t be out there for the potential 5 remaining video games, starting with Recreation 3 Saturday evening at PPG Paints Area.
The play that probably led to the damage might have come when Goodrow blocked a Mike Matheson shot along with his decrease leg and/or ankle early within the second interval. Goodrow completed the rest of the Rangers’ marathon triple-overtime loss, recording two pictures on objective, one hit and two takeaways over 20:42 of ice time regardless of the damage.
Whereas Goodrow and his 66 video games of playoff expertise comes out of the Rangers lineup, veteran defenseman Justin Braun has drawn in after Ryan Lindgren’s lower-body damage that sidelined him for Video games 2 and three. Braun’s 101 postseason video games definitely makes up for the lack of Goodrow in that class, but it surely’ll be troublesome to copy Goodrow’s contributions on the ice.
Off the ice, nevertheless, Goodrow continues to be very a lot across the Rangers and making an attempt to make an affect in any means he can.
“He’s clearly an enormous participant for us and we’re going to overlook him,” defenseman Jacob Trouba stated. “However we love the depth of our workforce. It’s not like he’s gone. He’s right here right this moment. He’s nonetheless round. He’s an enormous a part of what we do. His angle, his vitality continues to be across the rink. However subsequent man up and hopefully he will get again as quickly as he can.
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“Simply being himself, he’s man to have round. Clearly, he’s bummed proper now, however he’s nonetheless acquired a smile on his face and chatting it up with everyone and serving to guys the place he can.”
Ahead Dryden Hunt has changed Goodrow on the left wing of the fourth line subsequent to Kevin Rooney and Ryan Reaves. Regardless that Hunt wasn’t essentially a downgrade given his efficiency in Recreation 2, through which the 26-year-old recorded three hits in 10:38 of ice time, probably the most notable impediment is the truth that he’s not a penalty-killer.
Goodrow logged probably the most shorthanded ice time (183:18) for the Rangers throughout the common season, and Lindgren (174:16) wasn’t too far behind. Shedding their prime two penalty-killers has thrust extra of a workload onto forwards Chris Kreider, Andrew Copp, Kevin Rooney and Mika Zibanejad.
With out Goodrow, Copp (2:30) logged probably the most shorthanded minutes amongst forwards in Recreation 2 and Rooney noticed a pair seconds much less with 2:27. The Penguins solely had two power-play alternatives within the second sport of the collection, however ought to Pittsburgh see extra time with the man-advantage, the Rangers will really feel Goodrow’s absence.
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