Rangers’ Urho Vaakanainen, Noah Laba leave game against Devils with injuries
The New York Rangers have announced that defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and center Noah Laba have exited Wednesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils with injuries.
UPDATE: Urho Vaakanainen (upper body) will not return tonight.
UPDATE: Noah Laba (lower body) will not return tonight.
At this point in time, it’s unclear what caused the injury to Vaakanainen. He played five shifts through the first 10:07 of the game, but did not play a shift after that. He finished the game with nothing on his stat sheet in 3:07 of ice time.
There is also no details on the severity of Vaakanainen’s injury, or how much time he’s expected to miss with the injury. All that is known that it is an upper-body injury.
It’s an unfortunate injury for Vaakanainen, as he’s struggled to stay in the Rangers’ lineup, although not due to injuries. While he did miss two games due to a lower-body injury in November, he’s largely not played due to being a healthy scratch on a consistent basis. He’s only got into 32 games this season, registering just six assists in those games.
Like Vaakanainen, the details surrounding the cause of Laba’s injury, along with the severity of it and how much time he’s expected to miss, is not known, outside of it being a lower-body injury. Laba’s last shift was only eight seconds, so it’s possible he sustained his injury on that shift. He had a shot, three hits and two giveaways in 8:40 of ice time before departing halfway through the second period.
Laba has already missed three games this season with an upper-body injury in January, but has otherwise had a solid rookie season. In 64 games with the Rangers, he has nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points.
The Rangers have the second half of a back-to-back on the road against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, so an update on Vaakanainen and Laba will likely be provided either after the conclusion of Wednesday’s game, or on Thursday ahead of their game in Columbus.