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ST. LOUIS — The Rangers want to use star goalie Igor Shesterkin as much as they can, and the same applies to reigning Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox.
Who could blame head coach Gerard Gallant for wanting to use Fox in all situations — on the power play, penalty kill and last-minute situations — when the 24-year-old defenseman has such a large impact on every game? Not only has the wear and tear of the first 82-game season of his NHL career begun to show, but the Rangers will need a healthy and rested Fox come playoff time.
“He plays a lot of minutes, he plays a lot of important minutes for us and he’s a key player for us, no doubt about that,” Gallant said before the Rangers faced the Blues at Enterprise Center on Thursday night. “He’s key, but you’re trying to win games every night. Our medical staff and our off-ice conditioning staff, we talk with him all the time and make sure he’s doing the right things. He said he feels great, so we’ll monitor game by game like anybody else. But obviously, we got 25 games left and we’ll watch him.”
Fox, who has played the seventh-most minutes in the NHL over the past two seasons, is averaging 24:19 this season after playing 24:42 per game during last year’s truncated 56-game schedule.
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It’s easy to forget Fox is experiencing his first full season with the implications of travel and such, considering his rookie season in 2019-20 was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the intradivisional play format last season kept the Rangers relatively close to home all season long.
“Everyone wants to be on the ice for the whole game, but in the long run, it’s not maybe the best thing or the most sustainable to be out there all the time,” Fox said. “I think for me, I want to be out there. It’s just managing, picking your spots and stuff like that also helps. Managing the game, too. I don’t think it’s anywhere where it’s too much of a burden. I just think it’s something of managing and understanding how your body’s feeling that day too.”
Fox pointed out that most NHL players, at one point or another in their hockey careers, have played in all situations for a team. For those reasons, his current workload isn’t all that new to him. That said, an NHL season takes a toll on the body.
Asked what he feels he needs to do to ensure he’s feeling his best, Fox noted that a big part of it happens away from the ice. Ensuring he’s resting, recovering and eating the right things are some of the things Fox is still learning how to do. In games, however, he said being strategic about when to jump in on the rush or when to peel off and change certainly helps.
“You can’t be at your best every game, every month,” Gallant said. “He’s a great player. Even when he plays an average game in everybody’s eyes he’s still doing real good things for us. We’ll watch the games back and say he made a great play here and a great play there. Everything was smooth for him, now it’s a little bit of a bump in the road, we call it for our team. He’s a big part of our group. But again, he can’t be perfect for 82 games. We love what he brings to our group every night.
“He wants to get points, he wants to be big on our power play and that’s a huge part of it. But he also starts D-zone faceoffs, he makes breakout plays for us. He’s a complete player for us, it’s not just about the points.”
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