Rangers acting coach Kris Knoblauch accused himself of "mismanagement’’ when asked about Alexis Lafreniere’s ice time in Saturday’s 3-1 win over the Capitals in Washington. And he apparently was still bothered by that even as his team was set to face the lowly Buffalo Sabres at the Garden Monday night.
"Players make mistakes when they're on the ice, [and] so do coaches,’’ Knoblauch said after his team’s morning skate Monday.
Knoblauch was caught up in trying to win a game Saturday in Washington, and he decided he didn’t want to chance having the Capitals throw out their big guns – Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, et al – on the ice against his Kid Line of Lafreniere, 19, Filip Chytil, 21, and Kaapo Kakko, 20.