{"id":386361,"date":"2026-01-02T10:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386361\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:29:19","slug":"noah-laba-out-week-to-week-as-rangers-get-hit-with-injury-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386361\/","title":{"rendered":"Noah Laba out week-to-week as Rangers get hit with injury bug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MIAMI \u2014 Just as one injury concern goes away, two more pop up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Noah Laba is week to week with an upper-body injury he suffered on a hit from Capitals agitator Tom Wilson in the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/31\/sports\/rangers-lose-third-straight-as-capitals-take-it-to-them\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second period Wednesday afternoon<\/a> in Washington, the team announced Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s just the latest injury blow to a Rangers lineup that has been riddled with them since Day 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a tough loss,\u201d head coach Mike Sullivan said Thursday after practice at loanDepot park. \u201cLabs has played extremely well for us. His learning curve has been steep. From the time that we watched him in Lehigh Valley with the rookies to where he is right now, I think his game is night and day in a much better place. I think the one element that he brings to our group is a speed game and just a conscientious game on both sides of the puck. And so he\u2019s not going to be an easy guy to replace. We\u2019re certainly going to miss him.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old rookie watched from the dugout as his teammates took the ice inside the home of the Miami Marlins for practice. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38074734\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20251231_hlf_yt6_029.jpg\" alt=\"New York Rangers center Noah Laba (42) skates of ice with a trainer after an injury during the second period against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. \" class=\"wp-image-38074734\"  \/>New York Rangers center Noah Laba (42) skates of ice with a trainer after an injury during the second period against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Dec. 31, 2025.  Hannah Foslien-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Alongside him was Adam Edstrom, who has missed 15 straight games on long-term injured reserve with a lower-body injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Conor Sheary was spotted using crutches after sustaining a lower-body injury Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Rangers put Sheary on long-term injured reserve. <\/p>\n<p>In a series of subsequent moves, the club also recalled wings Brett Berard, Anton Blidh and center Justin Dowling from Hartford.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a sense of [the severity],\u201d Sullivan said of Sheary\u2019s injury. \u201cWhat I\u2019ll tell you is that he\u2019s longer term right now and we\u2019ll go from there. But I wouldn\u2019t expect him anytime soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38074766\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20251231_hlf_yt6_008.jpg\" alt=\"New York Rangers left wing Conor Sheary (43) passes the puck defended by Washington Capitals center Nic Dowd (26) during the first period at Capital One Arena. \" class=\"wp-image-38074766\"  \/>New York Rangers left wing Conor Sheary (43) passes the puck defended by Washington Capitals center Nic Dowd (26) during the first period at Capital One Arena.  Hannah Foslien-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Because the Rangers needed extra bodies around due to the injuries and illness, Brennan Othmann was returned to the Wolf Pack due to cap constraints.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Laba, who has appeared in all 42 games since winning the third-line center job out of training camp, is the more significant loss. Already thin down the middle, the Rangers have been fortunate to have so much consistency with Laba filling that spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Without Laba, Dowling centered the third line between Jonny Brodzinski and Taylor Raddysh. The 35-year-old center could make his Rangers debut in the Winter Classic. He signed a two-year deal with the Rangers in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Captain J.T. Miller joined the Rangers for practice in a red noncontact jersey for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury Dec. 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Skating in a red noncontact jersey, Miller took another step toward returning to the lineup. Friday\u2019s game will be the sixth straight game Miller has missed, the eighth in total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Just as one injury concern goes away, two more pop up.\u00a0 Noah Laba is week to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[49596,5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-386361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-connor-sheary","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkrangers","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-rangers","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115825041438821391","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}