Filip Chytil, slated to play in his third game of the playoffs Friday night, can’t say for sure how close he is to the peak version of himself after missing all but 10 games in the regular season and 10 of 12 postseason contests with a suspected concussion.
Every single shift, however, matters to him.
It is still exciting for him just to be back on the ice.
The Czech forward is simply – and rightfully – proud of himself for getting to this point.
“It’s been a long time,” Chytil said before the Rangers took the ice for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Final matchup with the Panthers. “It’s hard to say. Every time I go out there I’m just playing hard, doing the things that I think is best at that moment. Of course, it’s different than if I was playing every game all season.
“I missed over 80 games and I know that I’m honest with myself. It’s different, but I’m just competing, playing hard and doing what I can out there.”
Chytil logged 12:02 of ice time in Game 3 of the Hurricanes series before appearing for 9:17 in Game 1 against Florida on Wednesday.
Skating on the wing of a line with Alex Wennberg and Kaapo Kakko in both contests, Chytil has totalled just one shot on goal – a gorgeous puck-between-the-legs move to the net before he was denied by Carolina goalie Pytor Kochetkov – as he works to find his footing after such a long layoff from game action.
In the Rangers’ 3-0 loss in conference final opener earlier this week, Chytil didn’t take a shift from the 4:22 mark of the third period until the final 1:07 of play, which head coach Peter Laviolette chalked up to wanting to double shift his top guys and how the game unfolded at that time.
Chytil will need some time to get back to his usual self, and Laviolette is conscious of that fact.
“I think that there’s a balance that you have to try and find, we’re trying to work through that as well,” Laviolette said. “You have a player that’s missed a substantial amount of time who has come back and worked hard to try to get back up to speed. I think with that there’s got to be some reps and there’s got to be some opportunity for him to do that. I don’t know if that’s been crystal clear, especially last game.
“From there, there will be an expectation that in order to get those minutes and get those opportunities, it has to be productive as well. I do think he’s put in a lot of work to give himself an opportunity to be back in the lineup and I understand his capabilities and what he could do if he were to be the player that came to camp.
“But there was just a lot of time that was off for him.This is truly the meaning of catching that moving train, it’s moving pretty quick and he missed a lot of time and we’re trying to get him back up to speed. So, we monitor it and see how he does in situations.”
A natural center, Chytil said playing on the wing is nothing new to him despite him not playing that position for a majority of his Rangers career.
Laviolette noted it was too early to evaluate how he liked Chytil in that spot, but pointed out that the 24-year-old has been working on it in practice.
Chytil credited the pace and intensity of Laviolette’s practices for why he was able to get back as fast as he did.
At this point, however, Chytil said he’s been relying on muscle memory rather than the consistency of playing time like everybody else.
“But this is the conference finals, nobody is asking if I didn’t play or if I did play,” Chytil said. “It’s just I have to give my best and help the team to win the game and that’s all I’m thinking. I’m not thinking about anything else.”