ST. LOUIS – The first question posed to Rangers coach Mike Sullivan after the morning skate in advance of Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Blues was what did he want to see different in this game than Tuesday’s game against Vancouver.
“Well, we’d like to see us score some goals,’’ Sullivan deadpanned, knowing his team had been shut out by Vancouver. “I’m probably stating the obvious there. But we had a film session to try to find some solutions for these guys, try to help us find the back of the net a little bit more consistently.’’
One thing the team is trying is to change up the personnel a little, which it did by bringing up prospects Gabe Perreault and Brennan Othmann for the trip to St. Louis. Perreault was leading Hartford in scoring with 10 goals and 17 points in 20 games. Othmann had three goals in the last four games.
Perreault, 20, the Rangers’ first-round pick in 2023, was asked if he thought he could help the team with its goalscoring problem.
“Yeah, I think, definitely,’’ he said. “It’s always been one of my strengths, producing [offense], and I think I’ve done that at quite a bit of levels. So I think now just trying to figure it out here [at the NHL level], and get going. And I think if I do that, then ultimately it’ll help the team.’’
He’d already been called up once before this season and played three games on the top line with J.T. Miller and Mika Zibanejad, registering one assist, before being sent back to Hartford. His defensive play was an issue, apparently.
But with the Rangers having been shut out an NHL-most seven times this season, and averaging just 2.51 goals per game going into Thursday, the team’s braintrust wanted to get another look at Perreault.
“We just want to see where his game is at, and we’re trying to put him in a position to succeed,’’ Sullivan said of recalling Perreault. “The last time that we called him up, we put him in the top six, with our top players. The challenge with that is, you’re playing against opponents’ top players. Also, you’re getting the top defense pair.
“We’re excited about Gabe’s game and potentially where it can go. We also recognize that this is a process, and… we don’t want young players like Gabe to get overwhelmed.’’
Othmann, 22, was the Rangers’ first-round pick in 2021, but in his third pro season, he hasn’t been able to stick. He failed to make the team out of training camp and got off to a slow start in Hartford, but he got called up at the end of October after Matt Rempe suffered a broken thumb and couldn’t make a trip to Western Canada. However, he made a defensive mistake in the first game, didn’t play again and was returned to Hartford when the trip was over.
It’s been a trying season for Othmann, who’s been rumored to be on the trading block. He talked about being “down in the dumps’’ after not making the team out of training camp, about how he’s been trying to “stick with it’’ after a minor hockey coach of his reminded him to “trust the process,’’ and he talked again about how bothered he is by not having scored an NHL goal yet after 26 career games.
“This morning Mika actually asked me if I had scored, and I looked at him, and I shook my head, and he was like, ‘Dude, just put the puck in the net.’ And I’m like, ‘Easy for you to say,’’’ Othmann said. “But no, I’m just gonna try to play my game. And you know what? However many ever minutes I play, whatever happens out there, I want to enjoy it. It’s my second game in the NHL this season, so I just want to slowly start getting back into it. And I just want to have fun and create some energy.”
Blue notes
Artemi Panarin did not take part in the morning skate because he was “under the weather,’’ according to the Rangers. Whether he played would be a game-time decision, the team said… Defenseman Adam Fox, who is on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury, made the trip with the team and took part in the morning skate, wearing a red no-contact jersey.
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.