Tony DeAngelo has played his last game for the Rangers
- by Grant Boone
- in Sports
- — Feb 4, 2021
Chris Kreider scored the tiebreaking power-play goal with 8:50 remaining in the third period and the host New York Rangers edged the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
"This isn't about one incident, it's not about one thing", Rangers head coach David Quinn told reporters Sunday.
Kevin Rooney scored New York's second-period goal while Artemi Panarin got an empty-netter right before the final buzzer and collected two assists for the Rangers, who won after announcing defenseman Tony DeAngelo would never play for the team again, a day after he was placed on waivers.
"It's not something as players that you're very happy about, he's one of our friends", Trouba said of DeAngelo going on waivers.
Gorton said DeAngelo "wasn't able to move on" from being scratched, according to TSN's Frank Seravalli.
This isnt about one incident, he said. The Capitals, coming off their first regulation defeat of the season, will test the Rangers in ways they have yet to be tested so far. There was reportedly a postgame altercation between DeAngelo and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev after Saturday's game against the Penguins. This is the decision that the organization has deemed the best at this point. The 29-year-old winger stuffed home a loose puck from a sharp angle after beating K'Andre Miller to the back post.
Monday, the Rangers will promote Anthony Bitetto from the taxi squad to take DeAngelo's spot on the blue line, likely with Smith on the third pair.
The Rangers (2-4-2) are struggling defensively after eight games this season, and they are last in the Eastern section. Puck drop is at 7:00 PM as the Penguins play their fifth game of seven-straight road contests. He was eligible but was held out, in order to "protect the [waiver] process", Quinn said.
DeAngelo led Rangers defensemen in scoring with 15 goals and 38 assists in a breakout 2019-20 season, in which he finished 12th in Norris Trophy voting.
"A handful of guys maybe arent playing at the level they were playing past year, and you could probably say Tony would be one of them, but hes not the only one", Quinn said.
