GREENBURGH – Blake Wheeler laughed when asked about his taking a tumble into the boards during the Rangers’ practice Friday, before the team left for Washington for its game Saturday against the Capitals. The 6-5 Wheeler seemed to get up a little slowly after his fall, and it was a couple minutes before he got back into the drills. But he said afterward that he was fine.
“Yeah, everything’s OK,’’ he said with a chuckle. “I think Schneids [Braden Schneider] and I just kind of — I think my toe clipped his heel and I [went down]. I survived.’’
Chris Kreider, who’d missed Thursday’s practice with what the Rangers called a lower-body injury, also went down Friday, taking a hit from K’Andre Miller during a scrimmage near the end of the 50-minute practice and slamming into the boards. He fell and got up a little gingerly, and everyone stopped for a moment to make sure he was OK.
“You never want to see a guy go down, especially in practice,’’ center Vincent Trocheck said. “You jmake sure they get up, and they’re all right.’’
Kreider did get up, and he was apparently all right, as he was able to do his regular post-practice routine of tipping and redirecting shots in front of the net a few minutes later.
“They finished. They’re good,’’ coach Peter Laviolette said of Wheeler and Kreider.
Given the fact that forward Barclay Goodrow missed practice for the second straight day, after leaving Tuesday’s loss in Ottawa in the first period because of a puck to the face, the Rangers were fortunate that Wheeler and Kreider were OK. The team is already playing without injured forwards Filip Chytil (who has missed 14 games with an upper-body injury that is suspected to be a concussion) and Kaapo Kakko (four games missed with a lower-body injury).
Forward Riley Nash was called up late Thursday from AHL Hartford as insurance against Goodrow being unavailable Saturday. Nash skated in Goodrow’s spot as the fourth-line center Friday, between…
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