Questioning Rangers' Zibanejad On Being a Healthy Scratch In the Team's 4-1 Loss to the Ducks

Monday night's game between the New York Rangers and Anaheim Ducks at Madison Square Garden was a big one for the Blueshirts.

The team was coming off a dramatic 5-4 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens at home on Saturday night and they were looking to build off of that and get on a roll at MSG. What better way to do that by winning your second straight game and going into Tuesday night's tilt with the Vancouver Canucks on a two-game winning streak.

It also marked Chris Kreider's and Jacob Trouba's return to the Garden ice for the first time since they were traded. No disrespect to Trouba, but it was Kreider's return that meant more to franchise and their fans, as he spent his first 14 seasons in the NHL with the club.

Kreider had a lot of good friends on the Rangers, but none better than Mika Zibanejad. Kreider and Zibanejad were best friends both on and off the ice and produced a lot of magic for the Blueshirts in their deep Stanley Cup playoff runs in 2022 and 2024.

As such, there is no doubt that it was going to be a tough night for both Kreider and Zibanejad. No longer would they be on the bench together and instead, they would be playing against each other.

With all of that said, only one player held up their end of the bargain in Monday night's tilt, a 4-1 win for the Ducks. That player was Kreider.

Kreider showed up, got a standing ovation during the game's first commercial break, waved to the fans to thank them, and went on and focused on the game like a true professional. One would expect nothing less of Kreider.

Meanwhile, Zibanejad ended up being a healthy scratch. Rangers' head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters earlier on Monday that Zibanejad would be a healthy scratch for missing a team meeting. Sullivan, for whatever reason, then went on to praise Zibanejad for feeling badly about it and being an honest person.

He feels terribly. The one thing about Mika is he's an honest person. He's a great human being and he takes responsibility for it.

Now, there are two ways to look at this. The first is that Sullivan was holding a player accountable for missing a team meeting and showing the rest of the team that they need to follow the rules if they want to play.

This is actually been something that has been missing from the Rangers' franchise for a long time. There has been no accountability and things have been like a country club for this team.

As such, this would be a much needed and welcome change. Sullivan is a no nonsense coach and by scratching one of the team's supposed best players, it shows the rest of the club that they need to get in line and do what they are told.

The other way to look at it is that Zibanejad was going to be too emotional to play against his best friend. If last year showed anything, it showed that Zibanejad took things too personally and when he did that, it negatively impacted his play.

Last season, Zibanejad showed that he took things to heart. When he heard that Kreider might be traded during the season, his attitude and play went south and he ended up having one of his worst seasons as a Ranger as he had just 62 points (20 goals and 42 assists).

His body language was also off. He did not backcheck hard, he did not bear down when it came to trying to put the puck in the net, and he looked disinterested.

Considering that Zibanejad is a professional athlete, one would have to hope that he was scratched because he actually did miss a team meeting and not because he was not able to emotionally handle playing against Kreider. Former teammates play against each other all the time in professional sports, so this should not have been an issue for Zibanejad.

Zibanejad being a healthy scratch in the team's loss to the Ducks ended up negatively impacting the team's offense last night. In a game where they only scored one goal, the Rangers could have used someone like Zibanejad to help spark the club's power play and put more pucks to the net.

No matter which way you look at it, it is an ugly situation for Zibanejad and the Rangers.