The Rangers will resume their season after the Olympic break with three pieces back in their lineup.
Goaltender Igor Shesterkin and defenseman Adam Fox will return for their game Thursday against the Flyers at the Garden after both being out since exiting a Jan. 5 game with lower-body injuries, head coach Mike Sullivan said after the Blueshirts’ morning skate in Tarrytown.
Conor Sheary, who hasn’t played since Dec. 31 with a lower-body injury, will also return. Adam Edstrom, out since the end of November, continues to skate with the team but still needs to log more practices before returning, Sullivan said.
So after a 2-11 stretch that followed after Shesterkin and Fox landed on injured reserve and long-term injured reserve, respectively, the Rangers — after needing to rely on Jonathan Quick as their starting goaltender and shuffling around their power play again without Fox — will have a bit of normalcy in their lineup.
“I think it’s a huge boost,” Sullivan said of Fox and Shesterkin returning. “These guys, the caliber of player that they are, it’s hard to replace those guys — as we know. So when you get two elite players back in the lineup like that, I think it gives a huge boost of confidence to the whole group.”
Fox has skated in just three games for the Rangers since Nov. 29, initially dealing with a shoulder injury before sustaining the lower-body one at the end of regulation Jan. 5, missing overtime in the Blueshirts’ eventual loss to Utah and then landing on LTIR. The former Norris Trophy winner has collected 28 points across 38 games this year.
Before his injury, Shesterkin collected a .913 save percentage and 2.45 goals against average, but the Rangers encountered a major scare when the Mammoth’s JJ Peterka veered toward the net and Shesterkin collapsed — and needed to get helped off the ice — without any contact. Quick struggled as Shesterkin’s replacement, too, collecting a 1-8-0 record with a .853 save percentage.
And the Rangers, despite not playing a game since Feb. 5 due to the Olympic break, aren’t wasting any time getting both of their stars back in games.
“Because they’re healthy,” Sullivan said, when asked why this is the right time for Shesterkin and Fox. “They’ve trained extremely hard to get back to the position that they’re in, and they’re elite players and they make us a better team.”
