Rangers' Reaves suffers lower-body injury in incident with Devils' Subban

New York Rangers right winger Ryan Reaves left Wednesday’s pre-season game against the New Jersey Devils with a lower-body injury.

The play occurred in the first period when Reaves’ leg got clipped by P.K. Subban’s, causing the former to go down awkwardly. Reaves had to be helped off the ice as he seemed unable to put pressure on his left leg.

“I just went into the corner and tried to make myself big,” Subban said of the play after the game. “Obviously I tried to go in there and brace myself. My leg was still on the ice kind of dragging a little bit and his leg sort of buckled. It’s a tough play — in the pre-season you try to go out there and play and get your reps in and hope you don’t get hurt or too banged up.

“He’s an important player for their team and a guy that I know. It’s unfortunate, and I hate to see that.”

Rangers forward Chris Kreider challenged Subban to a fight at the start of the second period and was given a minor penalty for roughing, a major for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct as a result. Subban was penalized for five minutes for fighting as well.

“I mean, you’ve got to respond,” Subban said of the clash following the incident. “I think at the start of the second, I was a little surprised. I didn’t expect that. Nobody said anything to me about fighting. I think at the beginning of the third, I wanted to give our team the potential opportunity to get back in the game but also send a message that, listen, things happen on the ice. It was obviously an accident.”

Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant said post-game that it seems Reaves’ injury may not be as serious as initially feared.

“The only thing that I’m focused on is hoping that Ryan recovers quickly and he’s back on the ice,” Subban said. “That’s all I want to see. I know he’s an important player for them.”