This is not a bombshell. A fourth-line right wing getting scratched in late January by a non-playoff team cannot be a bombshell.
But this is not nothing, either.
Pavel Buchnevich, the aforementioned fourth-liner (for the previous seven games, at least) getting scratched while the Rangers dressed a seventh defenseman for Tuesday’s Garden match against the Flyers, is not nothing.
It is not simply a wake-up call, either, not when it comes in the club’s first match following an extended bye/All-Star break that started Jan. 20, not when it comes without a corresponding move to insert a different forward into the mix, and not when it had happened three times earlier.