DENVER _ A little less than two hours before the Rangers faced off against the Colorado Avalanche Friday night, the team announced, via Twitter, that it would be without center Kevin Hayes.
The team said Hayes would be sitting out the game because of an upper body injury, and his status is day-to-day.
Without Hayes, their second-leading scorer, the Rangers started off their three-game Western trip with an ugly 6-1 loss to the Avalanche, allowing three power-play goals by previously struggling Colorado, which had been winless (0-4-2) in its previous six games.
The Rangers spent most of the game shorthanded, beginning with when Cody McLeod was handed a five-minute major penalty for boarding Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard at 2:29 of the first period. The Avalanche scored two goals on the major power play _ the first, by Nathan MacKinnon, came after Rangers defenseman Adam McQuaid broke his stick, and the second came when Neal Pionk deflected Mikko Rantanen's centering pass over the shoulder of his goalie, Alex Georgiev _ and led, 2-0 after the first.
The Avalanche led, 3-0 after two, adding an even-strength goal by Gabriel Landeskog. Rantanen's second power-play goal, then scored three more goals in the third, including a second power play goal by Rantanen. Ryan Strome got a goal for the Rangers, and Jimmy Vesey had a penalty saved by Philipp Grubauer.
Before the game, Rangers coach David Quinn was asked if "day-to-day" really meant Hayes might only miss the one game.
"I think the altitude and the flying might have had something to do with it," Quinn said. "So this is day-to-day.
"And when we usually say day-to-day, I always mean it," he added with a laugh.
Hayes had missed practice on Thursday, and the team had said that was due to "maintenance." Quinn had said it was due to the same injury that had caused Hayes to miss several practices last month following a heavy crash into the end boards in a game Dec. 14 against Arizona.
With Hayes unavailable, Quinn moved 19-year-old rookie Filip Chytil, a center who had been playing on the wing for the last 20 games, back to the middle, where he slotted into Hayes' spot on the second line, between left wing Vladislav Namestnikov and right wing Mats Zuccarello.
With Hayes out of the lineup, left wing Jimmy Vesey, who had been a healthy scratch for Wednesday's 7-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, got back in. Also, with Hayes out, the five-forward first power play unit that Quinn had been using for the previous six games, was scrapped for the game, with defensemen Kevin Shattenkirk taking Hayes' place on the first power play group.
Hayes, 26, had cooled off the last couple games, but prior to that had been the Rangers' hottest player, putting together a nine-game point-scoring streak from Dec. 8-29, during which he had five goals and 11 assists, for 16 points. On the season, he has 10 goals and 23 assists, for 33 points, one less than team leader Mika Zibanejad (11-23-34).
Hayes, of course, is playing on a one-year, $5.175 million contract he signed last July. By rule, because he'd signed a one-year deal, the Rangers were not allowed to talk to him about any kind of contract extension until Jan. 1. Hayes' agent, Bob Murray, said yesterday the Rangers had not yet reached out to him to talk about a contract.
"At this point, we have not had discussions on a contract for Kevin," Murray said, adding, "I don't have expectations one way or the other. Right now, Kevin is focusing on his play this season, and trying to help the team win games."
