from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

So let me say this without anyone suggesting that I am calling Alexis Lafreniere a bust or a disappointment or somehow an example of how the Rangers do not know how to nurture teenagers.

But for the third straight game in which open ice was at a premium and the match was contested in tight spaces, David Quinn dropped the first-overall draft selection from the rotation over the second half of the third period.

The first-overall selection of the 2020 draft got two shifts worth 1:24 over the final 11:56 of Monday’s 2-0 Garden defeat to the Islanders in which the visitors struck twice within 2:05 after a scoreless first 51:15.

This after No. 13 received two shifts worth 57 seconds over the final 10:40 of Thursday’s 4-2 victory over the Capitals, which was a game after he received two shifts worth 1:29 in the final 11:13 of the 3-1 victory over the Penguins on Feb. 1.

It’s funny. People sort of assumed — and you, I and Felix Unger all know what happens when you do that — that Lafreniere would naturally elevate his game after scoring his first NHL goal with the game-winner in overtime in Buffalo on Jan. 28. For whatever reason, though, the 19-year-old’s game has stalled.

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