Rangers will be without Noah Laba and Urho Vakaninen next term.
Lapa, the Blueshirts’ third-line center, and Vaakanainen, the third outfielder, have been dealing week to week with lower and upper-body injuries, respectively.
Both exited the loss to the Devils on Wednesday early and did not travel with the team to Columbus on Thursday to complete the showdown.
When asked if neither would need a period of injured reserve, head coach Mike Sullivan said: “Right now, it’s going to be week-to-week.”
So, for the time being, it has forced the blue shirts to keep adapting. JT Miller skated between Connor Sheary and Ty Carty on the third line again. Taylor Radish hit the line with Vincent Trocheck and Will Coyle again as well.
It will also force the Blueshirts to focus on the penalty kill, where Lapa played a role during his rookie season in addition to the nine goals and 21 points he contributed offensively. Vakaninen, who appeared in just 33 games, was replaced by Connor McKee in the third defensive pairing during Rangers practice in Tarrytown on Saturday.
The absences of Lapa and Vaakanainen also represent the latest injuries the Blueshirts have suffered this season.
Miller has been on injured reserve twice. Defenseman Adam Fox has logged extended time on long-term injured reserve. Both goalkeepers – Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick – missed the games as well.
All of this led to constant confusion between Sullivan and his groups. Lapa, who also missed three games in early January, and Vaakanainen, forced it all to happen again.
When Sullivan was asked about the Rangers’ defense recently, and whether they needed to improve anything with goaltender Dylan Garand potentially making his NHL debut this week, he said they were “able to be stingier.”
The Blueshirts have allowed at least four goals in each of their past three losses, a streak that immediately followed their streak of points in eight of nine games outside of the Olympic break.
“I think it starts with the decisions we make with the puck, because if you flip the puck in the wrong areas of the rink, you don’t care about the puck, and it’s very difficult to get into structure,” Sullivan said. “You’re chasing the game. So I don’t think we’ve managed the ball nearly as well in the last few games as we did coming out of the break, for example.
“When we put a string of games together where we won games, it wasn’t a fluke. I think there were certain things that were happening that gave us the opportunity to be competitive.”
Sunday’s game against the Jets begins a period in which the Rangers will play nine of their next 10 games at home, with the lone road game coming up on Wednesday against the Maple Leafs.
Mika Zibanejad will skate in his 999th career game on Sunday, and is scheduled to make his 1,000th skate on Monday, barring injury, against his former Senators team as well.
He has scored 10 points over his past seven games.