Filip Chytil, scheduled to play his third playoff game Friday night, can’t say for sure how close he is to the best version of himself after missing all but 10 regular-season games and 10 of 12 games. postseason with a suspected concussion.
However, every turn is important to him.
It’s still exciting for him to get back on the ice.
The Czech striker is simply and rightfully proud of himself for getting to this point.
Filip Chytil watches the puck during a first-period faceoff against the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at MSG on May 22, 2024. NHLI via /Keynote USA/Getty Images
“It’s been a long time,” Chytil said before the Rangers took the ice for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference final matchup against the Panthers. “It’s hard to say. Every time I go out I play hard, I do the things that I think are best at that moment. Of course, it’s different than if I played every game for the entire season.
“I missed more than 80 games and I know that I am honest with myself. It’s different, but I’m just competing, playing hard and doing what I can.”
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 games, Chytil has totaled just one shot on goal – a magnificent movement of the puck between his legs towards the net before Carolina goalie Pytor Kochetkov stopped it – as He works to find his footing after a long break from the game.
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In the Rangers’ 3-0 loss in Game 1 of the conference finals earlier this week, Chytil did not make a change from the 4:22 mark of the third period until the final 1:07 of the game, which Head coach Peter Laviolette attributed it to wanting to change his best guys twice and how the game developed at the time.
Chytil will need some time to get back to his old self, and Laviolette is aware of that.
“I think there’s a balance to try to find, we’re trying to figure that out as well,” Laviolette said. “You have a player who has missed a considerable amount of time and who has come back and worked hard to try to get back into rhythm. I think with that there has to be some reps and there has to be some opportunity for him to do it. I don’t know if that has been very clear, especially in the last game.
Filip Chytil, scheduled to play his third playoff game Friday night, can’t say for sure how close he is to the best version of himself. NHLI via /Keynote USA/Getty Images
“From there, there will be an expectation that to get those minutes and those opportunities, you also have to be productive. I think he’s worked hard to give himself a chance to get back into the lineup and I understand his capabilities and what he could do if he was the player that came to camp.
“But there was just a lot of free time for him. This is really the meaning of catching that moving train, it’s moving pretty fast and it lost a lot of time and we’re trying to get it up to speed again. “So, we monitor him and see how he does in certain situations.”
Chytil, a natural center, said playing on the wing is nothing new for him even though he didn’t play that position for most of his Rangers career.
Laviolette noted that it was too early to evaluate whether he likes Chytil in that spot, but noted that the 24-year-old has been working on it in practice.
Filip Chytil skates with the puck during Game 1. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Chytil credited the pace and intensity of Laviolette’s practices for why he was able to return as quickly as he did.
At this point, however, Chytil said he’s been relying on muscle memory rather than consistency of playing time like everyone else.
“But this is the conference finals, no one is asking if I didn’t play or if I played,” Chytil said. “It’s just that I have to do my best and help the team win the game and that’s all I think about. “I’m not thinking about anything else.”
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