Rangers forward Kreider out with hand injury

Wednesday, 03.26.2014 / 1:47 PM

By Tal Pinchevsky - NHL.com Staff Writer / 2013-2014 At the Rink Blog

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NEW YORK -- New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider will not play Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers after sustaining a hand injury. He will not accompany the Rangers on their four-game road trip following the game.

Kreider sustained the injury Friday in a 3-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He had one assist in two games after that before being shut down.

The injury will be evaluated in the next few days, according to coach Alain Vigneault, who did not rule out surgery.

"We're still in the process at this time of evaluating our course of action here," Vigneault said. "We will know here in the next couple of days."

Forward Martin St. Louis will take Kreider's spot on New York's top line alongside Derek Stepan and Rick Nash. St. Louis and Stepan each struggled with the flu during a 4-3 overtime win against the Phoenix Coyotes on Monday, but appeared to be fine during the morning skate Wednesday.

"I feel better now, got a little more energy back. It was a nasty little bug, but I'm glad it's gone," said Stepan, who is looking forward to playing between St. Louis and Nash. "It's going to be pretty cool for me to be able to play with them. I hope to learn some things and build some chemistry."

Nash has some previous experience playing with St. Louis. The two played together for Davos in the Spengler Cup during the 2004-05 NHL work stoppage and were teammates on the Canada team that won gold at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Defenseman John Moore skated for the first time since sustaining a concussion against Columbus but will not play. Forward Daniel Carcillo sat out practice with an illness, and forward J.T. Miller was recalled from the American Hockey League, where he has enjoyed recent success, with two goals and 11 points in his past nine games.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will start his seventh straight game for the Rangers. Goalie Steve Mason will start for the fourth time in five games for the Flyers.

The Rangers lead the Flyers by one point for second place in the Metropolitan Division, although the Flyers have two games in hand. Philadelphia has lost seven straight at MSG, last winning there Feb. 20, 2011.

"I don't think I've won a game here yet in six years of my NHL career. Hopefully I'll break that tonight," Flyers forward Jakub Voracek said. "It's a tough building to play in. The fans get into it pretty good. It's fun to play those games."

Here are the projected lineups:

FLYERS

Scott Hartnell - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek

Brayden Schenn - Vincent Lecavalier - Wayne Simmonds

Tye McGinn - Sean Couturier - Matt Read

Michael Raffl - Zac Rinaldo - Adam Hall

Braydon Coburn - Kimmo Timonen

Luke Schenn - Andrew MacDonald

Nicklas Grossmann - Mark Streit

Steve Mason

Ray Emery

Scratched: Hal Gill, Jay Rosehill, Erik Gustafsson