Mika Zibanejad out tonight; hopes for Wednesday return

David Quinn confirmed after morning skate that Mika Zibanejad will miss his 13th game tonight while recovering from an upper-body injury suffered October 27th against the Bruins. Quinn said he’s targeting Wednesday for the return of the Swedish center.

DQ says no Mika tonight. Targeting Wednesday.

— Colin Stephenson (@ColinSNewsday) November 25, 2019

Over the time that Zibanejad has been out the Rangers have gone 7-5-0, not including the 7-4 loss the team suffered against Boston in which Mika was hurt. Zibanejad also spoke about the injury in a bit more detail;

I asked Mika if he could tell us what the injury was. He declined.
"I don't want to go into details, but I think you guys can figure out -- it was an upper body, so, I'm not going to go into more details than that.''

— Colin Stephenson (@ColinSNewsday) November 25, 2019

The obvious implication here is that while it’s officially being called an upper-body injury, Zibanejad is recuperating from a concussion. While that is bad enough, what’s much more important to highlight is that this not the first concussion the 25 year old has suffered. In fact, it might his 6th or 7th concussion, that we know of, in his young career.

While the Rangers could certainly use Zibanejad in the lineup, the most important thing here is making sure every precaution is taken to make sure he’s fully healthy and ready to go.