All is not well for the New York Rangers, who despite earning their first win of the season by shutting out the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 on Thursday night, will be without Vincent Trocheck for a while. The key center sustained an upper-body injury early in the second period on Oct. 9 against the Sabres.

After blocking a pair of shots during a shift early in the second period, Trocheck only took one more shift while the Rangers were shorthanded, killing an Urho Vaakanainen minor penalty with under 14 minutes remaining. Afterward, Mika Zibanejad took his place by shifting over to center Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere.

Back in the first period, Trocheck was involved in the Rangers’ first goal of the season scored by Lafreniere. He was able to get a piece of a Panarin shot that rebounded out to Lafreniere, who had just enough wiggle room to tuck it in. Before he left the game due to the injury, Trocheck took had an assist, two blocks, and went 7-for-11 on faceoffs in 12 shifts (7:48 TOI).

A very important player due to his capability at both even strength and on special teams, he’ll be sorely missed. The 32-year-old Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native has been a constant for the Blueshirts, as their best faceoff guy. Over his 803-game NHL career that’s included playing for the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes, he’s won 54.1 percent of draws. Without him, the Rangers will need both Zibanejad and J.T. Miller to win their fair share in the faceoff dots.

Miller has been good throughout his career, winning 54.4 percent. The 31-year-old Rangers captain had a good game against the Sabres, posting his first goal and assist of the season. Both came in a strong third period that saw the Blueshirts outscore the Sabres 3-nothing. After helping set up the first of the season from Carson Soucy, Miller redirected a Braden Schneider shot to put the game away with 2:49 left in regulation.

In addition to Zibanejad moving back to center to play with Panarin and Lafreniere for tonight’s game at the Pittsburgh Penguins in PPG Paints Arena, former Penguin Conor Sheary will move up to play with Miller and Will Cuylle. At the moment, the Rangers don’t have a lot of players who can play a top six role. With prospects Brett Berard, Brennan Othmann, and Gabe Perreault all set to play for the Hartford Wolf Pack in the AHL, Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan is going to mix and match with his lineup for the time being.

When asked about moving Zibanejad back at center, Sullivan indicated that he wants to have balance moving forward. “Because I think we need balance… and we need to give some of our other offensive people a center iceman that can think the game at their level and give them an opportunity to set them up for success.”

At the very least, rookie Noah Laba is winning faceoffs. In his first two games, he’s gone 12-and-4. That included going 7-for-9 versus the Sabres. After having a good NHL debut, Laba didn’t spend as much time in the offensive zone with Sheary and Taylor Raddysh. Let’s see how he responds in a rematch of the season opener against the Pens.

With Sheary getting bumped up in the lineup, Juuso Parssinen will make his season debut on the third line. He’ll play on the left side with Laba and Raddysh. Parssinen is a good skater with size and solid defensive instincts. He deserves more of a chance to show what he can do. I didn’t agree with him being a healthy scratch. He needs to play.

The only line that’ll remain unchanged is the checking unit. Sam Carrick continues to center Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe. That line had a better second game. In fact, on a make shift line, Rempe had a good forecheck that led to Lafreniere setting up Schneider at the point for a shot that Miller deflected home. Following Sabres coach Lindy Ruff’s ridiculous decision to lift Alex Lyon for an extra attacker down three, Carrick got the lone helper on Adam Fox’s empty netter.

Shesterkin Off and Running

So far, so good for Igor Shesterkin. In two starts, he’s allowed only one goal on 66 shots. That included a 37-save shutout to pick up his first win of the season against the Sabres.

He was tested often during the lopsided second period in which the Sabres dictated the action. With the Rangers in the box three times, Shesterkin made the key stops to keep Buffalo off the scoreboard. In total, he had nine shorthanded saves for the game. For the period, he stopped all 14 Sabres’ shots.

The 29-year-old turned aside a dozen more shots in the third period to record the 22nd shutout of his career. With the Rangers looking like they’ll struggle offensively, they’ll continue to need the very best from Shesterkin.

With the Rangers having a quick turnaround to host the Washington Capitals tomorrow night, it’s probably a good bet that Shesterkin will get the night off. In what will be the first of 12 back-to-backs, expect Jonathan Quick to make the start.