Rangers facing lineup decisions for road trip as they await Filip Chytil injury clarity
NY Post
Whether Filip Chytil travels with the Rangers on their upcoming four-game road trip out west should give a pretty good indication of the severity of the Czech center’s injury.
That, and whether the 25-year-old is even on the ice when the Blueshirts return to practice Saturday at MSG Training Center ahead of their flight to Seattle.
Given Chytil’s extensive injury history, the Rangers are likely to play it safe regardless of the details.
There’s always a possibility Chytil will be on the ice and on the team plane Saturday, like Thursday night’s collision with K’Andre Miller along the left half boards never happened.
The way his last year or so has gone, however, has left everyone understandably wary.
Last season, the Rangers won the Presidents’ Trophy despite losing Chytil 10 games into the season after he was bumped by Hurricanes forward Jesper Fast and suffered what is believed to be the fourth concussion of his eight-year NHL career.
This was near the end of a magnificent American life, and he’d been battling lung and prostate cancer for some time, but Pee Wee Reese was absolutely going to get in the car and make the drive from Louisville to Kansas City. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was honoring his dear friend Jackie Robinson, and Reese knew that meant seeing so many friends from the old days.
The pity is, at this point, the greatness we are watching in real time is threatened every week to be reduced to a footnote. We are witnesses to history, to the rarest form of extended success in a time of professional sport that’s supposed to be ruled by parity. But every year we have to deal with something else first.