Injuries happen. This is professional sports after all. The New York Rangers are not immune to that fact.
Yet, it is jarring when star forward Artemi Panarin didn’t finish practice Friday nor skate Saturday due to a lower-body injury. Even if coach Mike Sullivan downplayed the severity of the issue, explained that the Rangers are simply being cautious this early in training camp, and that Panarin is day to day.
It’s jarring, though, because the Rangers don’t have another game-breaker like Panarin on the roster or in the pipeline. Of course, many teams don’t have even one Panarin comparable, much less another to step up in an injury absence.