There is a fair amount of time between now and July 1. And over these next eight-and-a-half months, it will be on general manager Chris Drury to figure out how to keep Ryan Lindgren, a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights.
It is apparent that it is going to be difficult to afford an extension for Lindgren, who is on the final year of a contract under which he is earning a bargain $3 million per year against the cap. That’s loose change for first-pair defensemen.
But at the same time, it is equally apparent that the team cannot afford to lose No. 55, who is a quintessential Black-and-Blueshirt. Lindgren is not the reigning Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award winner for his good looks alone.
“A guy like that in your the lineup changes things and changes the attitude,” Jacob Trouba told The Post following Monday’s 2-1 victory over the Coyotes in the Garden opener in which Lindgren delivered a typically inspirational performance after missing Saturday’s game in Columbus with an unidentified upper-body issue. “You watch him go out doing some of the stuff he does feeling the way he feels and you know you’ve got to bring it.
“I think it raises the level of the team.”
This was a gritty one played in tight spaces along the walls and in the corners. There was very little open ice for the Rangers other than the two-on-one on which Mika Zibanejad carried down the right side after a chip off the boards from Kaapo Kakko and spoon-fed Chris Kreider on the left for an open-side score and a 1-0 lead at 14:11 of the first period.
The Blueshirts were tight and compact in their defensive formations. Maybe that contributed to the club not finding free ice on the counterattack. Not to worry. Their down-low possession game, and certainly in the third period protecting a 2-1 lead they fashioned on Vincent Trocheck’s power-play deflection at 8:26 of the third, was excellent.
And the club received big-time goaltending from Igor Shesterkin, whose pad save on Jason Zucker’s penalty shot with 4:48 remaining after the winger was taken down in the open by Barclay Goodrow, allowed his teammates to breathe and win the type of game that traditionally is not associated with this franchise.
“Two-one, Rangers,” Trouba exclaimed with pride. “You haven’t seen that too often, have you?”
The question, of course, was rhetorical. But you know what you have seen over and over and over again? You’ve seen Lindgren blocking shots. You’ve seen Lindgren in the middle of it all, just as he was in this one that ended with him in the middle of a post-buzzer rugby-type scrum below the goal line after Arizona’s last-gasp chance was snuffed.
“He was cleared to play after coming off something he was dealing with but I thought he was in the mix all night,” head coach Peter Laviolette said of his defenseman. “He’s a competitive guy.
“And he played the full 61 minutes tonight.”
Lindgren had blocked a shot with his hand in Buffalo while killing a penalty. Actually, he was credited for only one block when it should have been two, one soon after the other. It was reminiscent of the time that Brian Leetch sustained a broken arm blocking a slap shot in Tampa in 1999-2000 but stayed on so he could block another one. Or maybe there were another two. That’s some steel there.
And that’s the kind of steel that is in Lindgren, who played 8:32 in the third period and a team-high 23:53 for the night even after absorbing a punishing blow against the boards from Lawson Crouse just 7:30 into the match. Lindgren seemed in pain as he skated to the bench. He did not miss a shift. Of course not.
What was it that Brandon Prust once said?
Right. “It’s only pain.”
Again, Lindgren was in the middle of it all. He even picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty protesting a slashing call on Alexis Lafreniere at 18:41 of the second period that left his team down two men for 2:00 with the game tied 1-1.
The Blueshirts responded. They allowed only two shots to get through on Shesterkin while blocking a pair of attempts, both by Trouba. The kill energized the building and the team.
“It was big, Lindy was there in the box and he’s a guy you kind of want to pick up,” Trouba said. “He’s out there doing what he does when other guys take penalties and he’s killing, so he made a mistake, he knew he made a mistake [picking up the unsportsmanlike] and that’s when your teammates have to pick you up.”
The Rangers did that. They picked up Lindgren the way he so often picks up the rest of them. His value is apparent.
