Kaapo Kakko return for Rangers vs. Blues not ruled out
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It seems an unlikely scenario, but head coach Peter Laviolette did not explicitly rule out activating Kaapo Kakko for Thursday night’s game in St. Louis after the Finn skated for the first time in full contact mode in Wednesday’s practice at the training facility.
“Right now, he’s day-to-day,” Laviolette said of Kakko, who has been sidelined for the last 19 games after going down with a left leg injury on Nov. 27. “There are no restrictions on him.
“He looked really good again to me. He looks good. Right now he’s day-to-day.”
Kakko skated in the middle between Chris Kreider and Will Cuylle, with Mika Zibanejad missing practice while feeling under the weather.
No. 93 is expected to play against the Blues.
That opens a stretch in which the team will play three games in four nights that includes a set of back-to-back weekend matinees against the Caps that opens in D.C. on Saturday.
The schedule will surely be a factor in the hierarchy’s decision on when to bring Kakko off the long-term injury list and restore him to active duty.
The 22-year-old winger recorded three points (2-1) in 20 games while skating with Kreider and Zibanejad for the opening 11 contests before being flipped onto the third line with Will Cuylle and Nick Bonino.
“We talk about all of that between the doctors and the training staff and management and the coaches,” Laviolette said. “We’ll do what’s best for the player.”
When the Canucks scored at 15:33 and 16:47 of the second period on Monday to extend a 3-2 lead into an unassailable three-goal cushion, it marked the 17th time the Blueshirts had surrendered two goals within 1:30.
That includes seven times when they’ve been scored upon twice within 30 seconds. Three of the 17 instances features empty netters.
“There are some questions I really wish I had answers for,” Laviolette said when asked if he could explain it. “I don’t have it.”
But the coach then elaborated as best he could.
“I know that at some point during my tenure here, we’ll score a goal with the goalie pulled three out of 12 games. Somebody will ask a question and I won’t have an answer for it,” Laviolette said. “There are always these peaks and valleys inside a season.
“And if there’s a pocket in which something is happening, you try and fix it, you try to talk about it. You try to talk about the next shift. You can address it and try to put it on the table to try and make sure the first shifts of the period are good, we close out with the last shifts of the period and when somebody scores a goal we’re answering the bell the next few shifts to make sure the bleeding stops there.
“But it has happened,” the coach said. “I don’t necessarily have an answer for it other than to try and put it on the table and talk about it.”
Jake Leschyshyn became the fifth forward summoned in-season from the AHL Wolf Pack in exchanging places with Brennan Othmann, returned to Hartford after a small sip of the NHL.
Leschyshyn, who had six points (3-3) in AHL 14 games, is expected to play Thursday after skating between Nick Bonino (on the left) and Jonny Brodzinski.
The 24-year-old center follows Brodzinski, Riley Nash, Adam Edstrom (currently injured) and Othmann on the Merritt Parkway express. He played 13 games last season for the Blueshirts without registering a point.
“Obviously I got to see him in training camp a little bit,” said Laviolette. “He’s fast, a good all-around player, their top all-around player down there right now.”
Tyler Pitlick, who sustained a lower-body injury in the Carolina game on Jan. 2, has begun to skate on his own.
“He is progressing but not at the point where he can come back and join us [for practice],” Laviolette said.
Blueshirts have begun using a metal contraption that simulates rebounds for work after the formal end of practice.
“It’s wild,” Kreider said. “Some of those rebounds come out hot!.”
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