KINGSTON, R.I. — J.T. Miller and Artemi Panarin are “good to go” against the Penguins on Opening Night Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed Monday after practice at the University of Rhode Island.
Both forwards were full participants in the Rangers practice at Boss Ice Arena.
While Panarin skated on the left wing of Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière, Miller took reps in the middle of Will Cuylle and Mika Zibanejad to make up the Rangers top six.
The 33-year-old Panarin didn’t play a single exhibition game this preseason primarily due to a lower-body injury, but an upper-body injury also arose at the end.
At morning skate ahead of their second-to-last preseason contest, Panarin took line rushes but ultimately did not dress for what were described as precautionary reasons.
Miller, on the other hand, logged 21:21 of ice time in one exhibition game, the 5-4 loss to the Islanders, before suffering a noncontact lower-body injury in practice Sept. 30.
He wore a red noncontact jersey for practice Friday, but was in a regular jersey Monday.
With the anticipated top six back intact, Conor Sheary skated on the left wing of Noah Laba and Taylor Raddysh to make up the third unit.
Adam Edstrom, Sam Carrick and Matt Rempe composed the fourth line, while Juuso Parssinen and Brett Berard rotated in as extras.
The defense lined up the same way it has for a majority of the preseason, with Vladislav Gavrikov and Adam Fox serving as the top pairing.
Carson Soucy skated with Will Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen lined up with Braden Schneider.
Matthew Robertson rotated in as the seventh defenseman.
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The first power-play unit featured Panarin, Miller, Zibanejad and Trocheck, while the second included Schneider, Lafrenière, Sheary, Rempe and Cuylle.
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“Our intention going through the course of the camp was to get him involved in the first unit,” Sullivan said of Lafrenière. “Our intention will be to continue to get him involved in the first unit, but we have to have some semblance of order and give guys repetition. So that was part of the process today. I would envision you seeing Laf on both units. We got some reps on the second unit today, but I would envision him moving forward getting opportunities to play with that top group, and that’s why we’ve worked him into that top group a lot of training camp.”
What are Sullivan’s emotions going against his former team of 10 years, the Penguins, in Games 1 and 3 to start the 2025-26 season?
“I don’t know that I can answer you right now. It’ll probably be a better question for after the game,” he said. “I haven’t really given it much thought. My focus has been on the Rangers and trying to prepare this team for the drop of the puck. I really haven’t entertained any sort of thoughts around what that experience will be like. Obviously, I was there a long time and built relationships with players and people.
“I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I had there. It was an incredible privilege to coach those guys. So from that standpoint, I’m sure there’ll be some mixed emotions.”
Jonny Brodzinski has not been around the team the past two days. He was with his wife for the birth of their third daughter.
