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Injury Update: Artemiy Panarin and K’Andre Miller Will Not Play Tonight vs. New Jersey Devils

The New York Rangers will be without one of their top forwards and defenders tonight vs. the New Jersey Devils. David Quinn announced that both Artemiy Panarin and K’Andre Miller would miss the game, but both are “close.”

Panarin logged 15:34 on Wednesday, February 10 in a game vs. the Boston Bruins. After sustaining an injury he was in some visible discomfort on the bench and it wasn’t a shock when he ended up missing the team’s next game that Friday vs. Boston.

With Panarin still out, Alexis Lafrenière should remain on the team’s second line, and Colin Blackwell appears to be in line to skate with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider on the top line, with Pavel Buchnevich moving down to the third line.

The lines could look something like this based on the listing on Daily Faceoff:

Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Colin Blackwell

Alexis Lafrenière — Ryan Strome — Kaapo Kakko

Phil Di Giuseppe — Brett Howden — Pavel Buchnevich

Brendan Lemieux — Kevin Rooney — Julien Gauthier

According to Vince Mercogliano, Miller left practice early on Monday for what Quinn called “precautionary reasons.” Quinn followed up saying Miller was dealing with an upper-body injury, was day-to-day, and the team would know a lot more on Tuesday, which ultimately came to fruition.

With Miller out of the lineup, Brendan Smith is expected to draw back in and skate with Jacob Trouba. The veteran defenseman has appeared in six game this season, and has averaged 12:36 a game. He has missed the last four games with an upper-body injury, and has been scratched three times so far into the 2020-21 campaign.

Here’s how the defense pairings could shake out:

Ryan Lindgren — Adam Fox

Brendan Smith — Jacob Trouba

Libor Hajek — Anthony Bitetto

Igor Shesterkin will get the start in goal and look to extend his streak of positive play in goal. In each of his last four starts, Shesterkin has allowed two goals or fewer, and has posted a save percentage above .930. Per Evolving-Hockey, Shesterkin has a GSAA of 4.65 and a GSAx of 3.11 which places him 12th and 9th respectively among all goalies.

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