Adam Fox is in uncharted territory.
He had performed alongside Ryan Lindgren as a defensive pairing for the Rangers for just about his total profession, and the 2 even knew one another beforehand from the USA Hockey Nationwide Group Growth program.
However the Rangers traded Lindgren together with Jimmy Vesey and the rights to unsigned 2021 draft choose Hank Kempf to the Avalanche in trade for Juuso Parssinen and Calvin de Haan earlier this month.
Fox had been on the injured checklist for eight video games with an upper-body damage and had not but felt the influence of his longtime good friend being dealt away.
He was faraway from the injured checklist final week and performed his first two video games with out Lindgren, losses to the Oilers and Flames.
“It was obviously tough,” Fox stated Wednesday. “Someone I played with pretty much my whole NHL career and knew him from before. He’s clearly doing well. I’m not surprised by that. It was kind of weird timing — I was out, so kind of adjusting to it now. Definitely miss him around the room.”
The Avalanche have received six of their seven video games since Lindgren joined (6-1-1).
He has a purpose and an help with Colorado and is plus-two on the ice.
Fox was ready for the commerce but in addition felt it might have been averted.
Lindgren is an unrestricted free agent after the season.
“I think anyone who is going into that UFA, you have sort of a sense,” Fox stated. “Some of that is on us, too. I’m sure if we had a better record and had more of a [playoff] push, he’d still be here.”
Within the two video games he’s performed with out Lindgren, Fox has been paired with Urho Vaakanainen.
“I think a lot of times, you only think of lines as forwards and chemistry in that sense, but I think defensemen have to have a lot of chemistry,” Fox stated. “Figuring out the place one another are, communication is large. You play 300-something video games with one man, you get nearly that second sense of the place they’re gonna be, the place your shops are, the assist, the communication.
“It’s definitely a bit of an adjustment.”
The Rangers held an optionally available apply Wednesday.
Those that participated had been: Fox, de Haan, Vaakanainen, Parssinen, Braden Schneider, Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard, Alexis Lafrenière, Jonny Brodzinski, Will Cuylle, Igor Shesterkin, Jonathan Fast and Carson Soucy.
Soucy, whom the Rangers acquired from the Canucks for a 2025 third-round choose simply earlier than the deadline, has been a wholesome scratch the previous three video games.
“I think he’s working to get up to speed on the system,” head coach Peter Laviolette stated Wednesday. “Sometimes when you’re thinking a little bit too much, it slows down a little bit. So just getting some practices, watching some games, getting an understanding of how we want to do things, I think will help with that processing speed.”
