This Mika Zibanejad suspension situation can't happen again for the Rangers
The Rangers' Mika Zibanejad against the Carolina Hurricanes. Credit: AP/Karl B DeBlaker
Sometimes, a coach just has to do what he has to do. Even if what he has to do potentially could cost his team a game.
Clearly, Rangers coach Mike Sullivan believed he needed to suspend his co-leading goal-scorer and power-play point man, Mika Zibanejad, for Monday’s game against Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba and the Anaheim Ducks. The Rangers lost the game, 4-1, and their power play went 0-for-4 and gave up a shorthanded goal. Plus, the penalty kill gave up a power-play goal, and everyone subsequently pointed to special teams as the difference in the game.
Zibanejad, who averages over 20 minutes a game, plays on both the power play and the penalty kill. After the game, captain J.T. Miller was asked what kind of effect Zibanejad’s absence may have had on the team.
“Probably the effect that you imagine,’’ Miller said. “He’s a big part of the team. He plays in all situations. So, we’re excited to have him back tomorrow.’’
Zibanejad was back in the lineup Tuesday when the Rangers hosted the Vancouver Canucks at the Garden. Sullivan had said that when he announced Zibanejad’s suspension. So the 32-year-old Swede’s punishment would be to miss one game in an 82-game season. In the grand scheme of things, that shouldn’t be a big deal.
Except, as Sullivan himself pointed out last week, in a jam-packed Eastern Conference playoff race, every game is important. A victory Monday would have pulled the Rangers even on points with the Flyers and Bruins, who held the two wild-card playoff spots in the East going into Tuesday.
“There’s parity in the league,’’ Sullivan said on Saturday. “So there's very few teams that have a significant cushion in the standings where they might have the luxury to rest a player, for example.’’
Yet Sullivan chose to sit out one of his best players because he was late for a meeting. Because sometimes, principles are more important than points.
It sounds like Zibanejad, one of the few remaining players on the roster who still lives in Manhattan, got caught in traffic. Sullivan acknowledged that “there are logistical challenges that the city presents sometimes,” and getting caught in traffic can certainly happen driving from Manhattan to Westchester the morning after the first snowfall of the season.
We don’t know if that’s actually what happened. We don’t know if there were extenuating circumstances. We don’t know if this was the first time he was late, or the second, or if it has been a chronic problem.
After the game, Sullivan was asked that question and he declined to answer, saying he was “not going to get into specifics on why we make decisions the way we made them.’’
If this was the first time it happened, a one-game suspension would seem like a pretty harsh penalty, especially to a good player and a solid person like Zibanejad, whom Sullivan described as “a great human being.’’ If it wasn’t, and if this has been a recurring issue, then, yes, of course, the coach had to do something.
Whatever the case, the Rangers will need to put this episode behind them, and fast. They were two points outside of the playoffs entering Tuesday’s game, and already facing the challenge of hanging in the race while they wait for Adam Fox, their No. 1 defenseman, second-leading scorer and top power-play point man, to return from an upper-body injury.
Zibanejad is supposed to be part of the solution to Fox’s absence, as he’s been tasked with playing the point on a five-forward first power-play unit until Fox gets back. The Rangers were 3-2-2 without Fox before Tuesday, but the power play was 2-for-18 since he left in the third period of the Nov. 29 game against Tampa Bay.
They were 0-for-12, with a shorthanded goal allowed, before Sullivan moved Zibanejad to the point for Saturday’s game against Montreal, and they were 2-for-2 in that game (though, to be fair, one goal came from the second unit, and the other was a 4-on-3 power play in overtime). Without Zibanejad Monday, they were 0-for-4, with a shorthanded goal allowed.
Whatever caused Zibanejad to miss that meeting, whatever caused Sullivan to decide he had to sit him out, that needs to not happen ever again.
The Rangers need Zibanejad on the ice. Heck, they need everybody.
Notes & quotes: Jonathan Quick started in goal for the Rangers . . . With Zibanejad back in and Jaroslav Chmelar also coming back in, Jonny Brodzinski and Brett Berard were scratched . . . D Scott Morrow was back in after sitting out the last two games and Urho Vaakanainen was out.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
