There was Adam Fox back in the lineup for the first-overall Rangers for the first time since Nov. 2, and there was his team trailing the Red Wings 2-1 in the third period at the Garden.
“I definitely didn’t want to come back and we lose,” the alternate captain said. “That would have not felt great.
“But even when I was out, we won games where we were down late, scored big goals in the Columbus game, the Jersey game. Everyone’s a part of it.”
The Rangers did not lose in Fox’s return, getting the 2-2 tying goal from K’Andre Miller at 9:14 and the winner from Jimmy Vesey off a midair backhand swat in front at 15:45 for a stirring 3-2 victory that ended the club’s losing streak at … one.
This wasn’t necessarily an especially pretty one as the Rangers found themselves going east-west just a bit too much for the second successive game and surrendered too much good ice on the counterattack.
For the most part, their forecheck failed to contain the Red Wings, who, by the way, flopped and dived and embellished like an amateurish soccer club. Nearly every hit produced histrionics. Some of the time their acting fooled the on-ice officials. It was embarrassing. That was a large part of why Detroit had the final five power plays of the match.
But the penalty-kill unit, one of the hallmarks of this team, was resolute. The Blueshirts foiled all five Detroit man-advantages, including the final one that came at 18:04 of the third that led to a six-on-four edge for the final 1:15 when the Red Wings pulled netminder Ville Husso.
Jacob Trouba slid to smother a pass. Trouba went down to block the final attempt of the game. When he did, the Blueshirts poured off their bench. Fox was one of the celebrants.
“It was great to be a part of it again,” said No. 23. “You could see guys stepping up with our injuries, Jonesy [Zac Jones], Gus [Erik Gustafsson], Jimmy.
“It just seems like it’s always been a collective effort. We have guys who are able to do a lot of scoring but you always need that depth.”
Speaking of which. Over the last seven games, Vesey leads the team with four goals scored at five-on-five play.
Fox logged 21:31 of ice time after missing 10 games, actually 27 seconds more than his average coming into the match. He was, of course, reunited with Ryan Lindgren while Gustafsson slid back to partner with Braden Schneider.
The return was reasonably seamless. Fox never seemed out of place. How could he? The rink is his home.
Get this: Until he sustained his injury on a leg-on-leg hit from Carolina’s Sebastian Aho in the first period of that Nov. 2 match, Fox had played in 325 of the Rangers’ 330 games — including postseason — since he joined the team as a rookie in 2019-20. He had missed one game due to COVID protocol in 2020-21, three games with an upper-body injury in 2021-22. He also missed one game when rested the final week of the 2021-22 regular season. Remarkable.
“I just wanted to get by those first couple of shifts and get back to just playing hockey again,” said Fox, who clocked in with a 62.5 precent Corsi rating in this one. “I definitely wanted to be simple early.
“I think you sit out for a while, it’s not so much handling the puck and skill-work like that, it’s positioning and knowing where to be on the ice. I haven’t been able to do too much five-on-five stuff but after the first couple of shifts I settled in and played hockey.”
Fox has been overshadowed by the more colorful Cale Makar in Colorado and this year, while sitting in street clothes, by Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes. Those 10 missed games will add up to fewer points. That’s a major thing when it comes to the Norris, even with three-quarters of the season to go.
So much of the Bagel Man’s game is rooted in subtlety. So much of his vision and creativity is displayed in the offensive zone and while running the power play from the top. But Fox is a 200-foot player who is more than fundamentally sound in his own end. That is often overlooked.
Know this: In 11 games, Fox has been on the ice for two goals against at five-on-five.
“I think he defends really well. He’s not a 6-[foot]-5 defenseman who does it with brawn,” said head coach Peter Laviolette. “He does it with hockey sense, he knows how to defend with his stick, with his skating, with his angles.
“He’s a competitor, so that puts him in the battle to come up with pucks. Then from there, from a defensive standpoint it’s that first step or that little breakout pass and either attack open ice or move that puck up the ice. I think he does a really good job defensively.
“It would be nice if that was the perception about him from everybody.”
Reality is more important than perception. The Rangers had Fox, F-O-X, back in the lineup. They even won another game.
