New York Rangers' Rick Nash has another groin injury, will be out against Penguins
After missing a few games due to a groin injury, the New York Rangers’ star winger came back and played exceptionally well. Now, he is expected to miss more time with another groin injury.
Rick Nash had played three games since sitting out due to a groin injury for the previous four. In those games, Nash looked like an absolute “savage”–as the cool kids would say. He has been the Rangers best player not named Henrik Lundqvist over that three-game stretch, scoring against the Stars and Predators, while also getting his chances against the Devils.
Nash’s first shift in last night’s overtime may be his last for a while, though. According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Nash has another groin injury.
“Nash will be sidelined for an unknown period of time, beginning with Tuesday’s showdown against the Penguins,” according to Brook’s report.
This is obviously not good news for the New York Rangers, who are beginning to revert back to old form and rely too heavily on their goaltending. Nash has been the best Rangers over this three-game winning streak so losing him for any period of time is not a good thing by any measure.
Now Alain Vigneault is going to have to find a line combination as dominant as Nash’s line with Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller was for the time being. Maybe Jimmy Vesey will be bumped up to the line and Brandon Pirri will take his spot with Jesper Fast and Oscar Lindberg.
What does this mean for Nash going forward?
Obviously, having two groin injuries in the span of as many weeks is not a good sign for the 32-year-old Nash. With that said, Nash had never sustained a groin injury before in his NHL career before he suffered his first on December 6th against the Islanders at Brooklyn.
If the Rangers were smart–which sometimes can be questioned–they would not rush Nash back, and in fact just ease him back in hopes that this will be the last of his groin problems for the season. Doing this might be hard for them, as the rest of the Metropolitan Division is really hot now. The Blue Jackets have won nine straight and have five games in hand on the Blueshirts, the Penguins are 7-1-2 in their last 10, the Flyers just lost for the first time in their past 11 games and the Capitals are still very good.
Luckily for the Rangers, they only play twice in the next seven days. Nobody knows how long Nash will be out for, but if he’s feeling better by the weekend, maybe he will be able to come back by next Tuesday night for their game against the Ottawa Senators at the Garden. As I said earlier, though, the team’s best bet is for him to take his time in recovery.
As for now, the Rangers will just have to keep rolling with the punches as they have done all season long. They will have to find a way to defeat the defending Stanley Cup Championships without their all-star winger.
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