Rangers impressive first win of season overshadowed by Vincent Trocheck injury
BUFFALO — The Rangers pulled a 180-degree turn from their first to second game of the 2025-26 season.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mollie Walker about the inside buzz on the Rangers.
After getting shut out in their home opener Tuesday, the Blueshirts went on the road and blanked the Sabres 4-0 in their first game at Keybank Center on Thursday night.Though the first win of the season was to be celebrated, it was overshadowed by the loss of Vincent Trocheck to an upper-body injury in the second period.It is unclear what led to Trocheck leaving the game with 13:10 left in the middle frame, but the Rangers ruled him out for the remainder of the contest at the start of the third.
There was no further update on Trocheck, who was still being evaluated after the game.“It’s tough,” said Alexis Lafrenière, who notched the first Rangers goal of the season in the first period.“He’s one of our best players, obviously.
He does everything for us.Hopefully, he gets better soon.”Trocheck wore a full face shield for a majority of the preseason and through the first two games of the regular season after the 32-year-old took a puck to the face in practice.
It is unclear if the two injuries are related.The Rangers are already thin at center with Mika Zibanejad now skating on the wing.If Trocheck has to miss some time, it’ll be interesting to see if head coach Mike Sullivan opts to put Zibanejad back in the middle or insert Juuso Parssinen or Jonny Brodzinski into a center role.Noah Laba won the third-line center job out of training camp, but Sullivan might not want to load the 22-year-old rookie with too much responsibility too early by moving him up into the top six.The loss of Trocheck for any amount of time would impact the Rangers’ special teams units as well.“We lose Troch early, and everybody kind of digs in there,” Sullivan said.
“And obviously, [Igor Shesterkin] made some huge saves ...