WASHINGTON — Assistant coach David Quinn was not behind the Rangers bench Tuesday night against the Capitals due to illness.
The team announced it roughly an hour before the Blueshirts took the Capital One Arena ice for warmups. Word is an ambulance was called to the scene earlier in the day.
Quinn, who served as the head coach of the Rangers from 2018-21, was not on the ice for morning skate either.
Assistant coach David Quinn of the New York Rangers tends to the bench during the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden on October 7, 2025. Getty Images
“Quinnie’s feeling a little bit better,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after the Rangers took a 7-3 win over Washington into the three-day holiday break. “He’s had a tough couple of days with this flu bug that seems to be going through the team. He’s been trying to fight through it, but today was, I think, a tough one for him. But he’s feeling better.”
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There appears to be an illness running through the team at the moment. It started with Artemi Panarin, who was sidelined for the Rangers’ 2-1 overtime win in St. Louis on Thursday. Matt Rempe and Gabe Perreault were both scratched Sunday night in Nashville due to illness as well.
The hope is that it is just whatever is going around the locker room and not something more serious.
Quinn is back in New York to serve on Sullivan’s staff after doing so in Pittsburgh during the 2024-25 season.
The two were teammates at Boston University in 1986-87, after which Quinn was diagnosed with Christmas disease, a rare genetic disorder and a type of hemophilia in which blood doesn’t clot.
Conor Sheary was a healthy scratch for the first time since Nov. 29 and the fourth time this season.
“Conor has had some games where he’s played extremely well for us,” Sullivan said after morning skate Tuesday. “When he’s at his very best, I think he’s one of our better puck pursuit guys. He gets in on the forecheck. He’s got a great stick. He forces a lot of turnovers. He’s a very disruptive player for our opponents, and he creates opportunities for the people that he plays with. Because of it, he plays a very high energy, high octane game. Most recently, we’ve played an awful lot of games in a short period of time.
“For a guy like Conor to sustain that level of energy, sometimes can be a challenge. But, having said that, when he’s at his best, that’s what he does for us, and he’s a very effective player for us.”
Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced in his 16th win of the season.