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Photo by Wayne Cuddington / Postmedia

“It’s just a case where we’re going to try to get through tonight and then we’ll have Zaitsev back and hopefully Goloubef,” Smith said Friday morning. “You don’t plan on this many guys getting injured and, unfortunately, Zaitsev having to go home for a day.

“Things happen, but in saying that you’ve got to look at a guy like Lajoie. This whole process is about us and these kids getting better. We get a look at Jaros, who was here last year, and we get a look at Lajoie. If guys didn’t get hurt, we wouldn’t have a look at Beaudin and (Filip) Chlapik and these guys.

“I don’t want guys to get hurt but I certainly welcome seeing these young kids and seeing how hungry they are. I just love the passion when they come out.”

Photo by Wayne Cuddington / Postmedia

AROUND THE BOARDS

Sent down early in camp in September, Lajoie, 22, who has no goals and five points in 17 games with Belleville this season, was back after suiting up for 56 games with Ottawa last season. “It’s a great feeling and I’m just really happy to be here,” said Lajoie, who had surgery to repair a sports hernia that ended his season in the AHL last year. “It’s been pretty (good) in Belleville. It was an adjustment at the start but I’ve got my game back. I worked really hard in the gym and on the ice so I’m back to where I should be.” … After suiting up for Boston University during the 2017-18 campaign, Tkachuk has kept in touch with coach David Quinn. He’s behind the Rangers bench for the second year and Tkachuk appreciated their time together. “He helped me out tremendously with just the little details in the game,” Tkahcuk said. “It was pretty much a full pro program at BU so it was the best thing for me. I’ve gotten to be close with him and I’ve kept in touch with him. He helped me out tremendously. He just taught me how to be a true pro even though we were still in college. It was my goal to make it to the NHL so he knows what it takes for guys and how to push them. I just wanted to go to BU and I just felt like that was the best place for me to get to the NHL.”