Rangers place Vincent Trocheck on long term injured reserve

The Rangers have placed Vincent Trocheck, who left last Saturday’s game in Buffalo due to an upper-body injury, on long-term injured reserve. The team announced Wednesday it has called up defenseman Scott Morrow from their Hartford farm team.

Morrow, 22, was called up because defenseman Will Borgen was unable to practice Wednesday due to a lower-body injury. With Carson Soucy (upper body) already on injured reserve, and Connor Mackey already having been called up from Hartford Tuesday, the Rangers needed to call up another defenseman in order to have seven available in case Borgen is unable to play Thursday in Toronto.

Coach Mike Sullivan, asked after practice Wednesday if he was optimistic Borgen might be able to play Thursday, said, “I’m not sure either way.’’

With the roster at the maximum 23 players, and their payroll at the top of the $95.5 million salary cap, the Rangers needed to put Trocheck on LTIR both to open a roster spot and to create enough space under the salary cap to call a player up. Teams who are at the top of the cap can exceed the salary cap by a portion of the cap hit of a player that is placed on LTIR. Because Trocheck had been declared out on a week-to-week basis Sunday, the team decided to put him on LTIR in order to call up Morrow.

Trocheck must now miss at least 10 games and 24 days. Putting him on LTIR retroactive to Friday, the day after he played his last game, means he’s already missed three games and five days. He is eligible to return Nov. 4, when the Rangers host K’Andre Miller and the Carolina Hurricanes at Madison Square Garden.

Losing Trocheck for the rest of the month is a blow to a Rangers team that is struggling to score goals and has yet to score a goal at home this season. With their 2-0 loss to Edmonton Tuesday, they became the first team in NHL history to be shut out in its first three home games of the season.

However, they keep repeating the mantra that they’ve played well, and they will be fine when the shots eventually start going in, which they believe is bound to happen sooner or later.

“I do believe that if we continue to generate the types of chances that we have the last couple of games, the puck will go in the net for us,’’ Sullivan said Wednesday.

Sullivan said that keeping a positive attitude is important, because it’s imperative to keep players’ confidence up.

“Our offensive people want to score goals. They know that the team relies on them to score goals,’’ he said. “So when the puck doesn't go in the net, it's easy for things like doubt to creep in. And that's where we have to be vigilant.’’

One player in desperate need of a goal is Mika Zibanejad, who has been the team’s most dynamic offensive player so far, but who has just one goal on 22 shots over the first five games. He’s creating excellent scoring chances, but has run into some hot goalies and bad luck.

But Zibanejad said he’s got to get past all that and just find a way to score. He’s confident he will.

“We need to score,’’ he said after Tuesday’s game. “I have some chances as well today, and I feel like I should score. But if I keep getting these chances, the puck's going to go in. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, honestly.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.