Notes from Breakup Day: Lundqvist and Zuccarello were both playing hurt

As expected, there were quite a few interesting bits of news to come out of today’s New York Rangers media breakup day. Perhaps the biggest story is that both Henrik Lundqvist and Mats Zuccarello have been dealing with injuries all season long. As a result, Zuccarello has already been ruled out for the 2018 IIHF World Championships.

Per Dan Rosen, Lundqvist’s injury didn’t affect how he played, but did affect how he prepared. He will meet with team doctors soon and is unsure about whether or not he will play in the Worlds.

Henrik Lundqvist said he has been bothered by a knee injury since late October or early November. He'll have an MRI.

— Colin Stephenson (@ColinASteph) April 10, 2018

Mats Zuccarello has been dealing with a knee injury all season long and will not play in the Worlds at the request of #NYR management.
From Nettavisen: "The newspaper has repeatedly seen him stumble in the wardrobe after the matches he has played." https://t.co/eJDHGJe2HG

— Mike Murphy (@DigDeepBSB) April 10, 2018

Some other notes:

• Veterans Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad are both headed to the 2018 IIHF World Championships and will represent USA and Sweden, respectively.
• Lias Andersson will also play for Sweden at the Worlds. It also sounds like Filip Chytil will be playing at the Worlds for Czech Republic. Gorton has said that he wants as many Rangers as possible playing in meaningful games.
• Kevin Shattenkirk said he would have played in the playoffs if the Rangers got there, but is ruling himself out of the World Championships./

Kevin Shattenkirk spoke to Team USA about playing in the Worlds but he decided against it because he wants to continue to rehab his knee. He would’ve pushed to play in the playoffs if the Rangers got there but it would require draining his knee at times. He wants to get to 100%.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) April 10, 2018

• We learned yesterday that both Shattenkirk and Tony DeAngelo are expected to be at 100 percent for training camp. DeAngelo has already resumed skating.
• Shattenkirk: “We want to create the right culture right away... we’re a few free agents away from being a really good hockey team.” Reported by Justine Ward of SNY TV.
• Kreider summed up the season as a “weird year for our group, and for me personally.” He also described Zibanejad as a “hungry dog” and someone that anyone would be successful playing with./

“You can only be excited for the direction everything is going in.”@ChrisKreider on his season, #NYR’s season coming to an end and his upcoming summer. pic.twitter.com/dm4XllQgBx

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 10, 2018

• Lundqvist: “We don’t know who’s going to show up, but whoever’s going to be here,  we gotta compete and make sure we have a better year. That’s that.’’ Reported by Colin Stephenson of Newsday.
• There’s also a report that the Rangers are parting ways with Russian defenseman Alexei Bereglazov./

#NYR prospect Alexei Bereglazov on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract, according to his agent.

— Dhiren Mahiban (@dcmahiban) April 10, 2018

We will have more coverage on the news coming out of breakup day for you later.