At the top of the hour, the New York Rangers will take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. They won’t have defenseman Will Borgen available.

In their 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, Borgen finished the game banged up. An upper-body injury will keep him out of the lineup for Saturday’s game.

Borgen is listed as day-to-day by the Rangers, who will travel from Columbus back to New York following the game. They host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

This will be their first game without Borgen, who’s been steady over the first 18 games this season. A defensive defenseman who was acquired last season for Kaapo Kakko, Borgen has probably been the Rangers’ most consistent player on the back end.

Averaging a career-high 18:43 a game, the 28-year-old Borgen is a solid physical presence for the Blueshirts. Ironically, he scored his first goal in the win over Tampa Bay. Borgen has formed a good second pair with Carson Soucy. They’ve quietly gotten the job done for Mike Sullivan.

Without Borgen, that means Braden Schneider will probably be asked to play a bigger role against the Blue Jackets. Schneider has struggled with consistency. If he moves up to pair with Soucy, he’ll need to be better. Unless Sullivan just decides to have Matthew Robertson play with Soucy, which would keep Schneider and Urho Vaakanainen together.

Either way, it’ll present more of a challenge at Columbus.