Rick Nash wasn’t at his locker to talk about the past.
For even as the path back to the Rangers’ lineup seems clear for No. 61 after he skated with his teammates yesterday for the first time in more than a week, the reason for his trip to Injured Reserve remains as cloudy as ever.
Nash, who missed his fourth straight game last night when the Blueshirts lost to the Jets 4-3 at the Garden, declined to provide a direct explanation for his absence, sidestepping questions about whether — as believed — he had sustained a concussion on the third-period play in Boston on Feb. 12 on which his head was driven into the glass by the Bruins’ Milan Lucic.
“I don’t really want to go into specifics; specific things that it was,” said Nash, who might be able to rejoin the lineup for tomorrow night’s Garden match against the Lightning. “It’s a lot of different things; I’ve been banged up quite a bit and obviously didn’t feel I could compete at the time.
“I’m not a doctor, it’s tough for me to analyze [whether I had a concussion]. It wasn’t something where I could look at myself and say I had that issue. That’s up for the doctors to decide.”
Nash was able to play in the two games immediately following the match in Boston before he was sidelined for last Tuesday’s match against the Canadiens. He was deemed a game-time decision for the Feb. 17 Garden match against the Capitals after having missed the previous day’s practice and a season-subscriber event on Feb. 15, but declared himself good to go against Washington, and logged 22:33 of ice.
“I felt good to play, I felt fine,” he said. “I felt good enough that I’d get through a game.”
The Rangers had lost three straight (0-2-1) while scoring a sum of three goals in his absence, entering last night with an overall record of 8-7-2.
“It’s been tough [to watch],” he said. “You’re a unit of 25 guys, or whatever it is, and you always want to help as much as you can.
“In saying that, it’s been fun to watch some of the young guys, and some of the guys step into bigger roles and take advantage of that.”
Actually, Ryan Callahan was the only forward to score — and that on the power play — during the first three games of Nash’s absence, so the “stepping up” hasn’t quite manifested itself In success. The Rangers have looked lost offensively without Nash, who leads the team with 12 points, though he has scored only three goals in 14 games.
Nash revealed he started skating on his own last week. He pronounced yesterday “a positive, positive day, for sure.
“After last week and today, it’s definitely headed in the right direction and it’s a big positive,” said Nash, who stayed on late to shoot pucks at backup goaltender Martin Biron, but was not put through the extended skating drills that players coming off IR generally experience.
“I’m feeling good, getting better. [I hope] to be back shortly.”
Ryan McDonagh, believed to be suffering from post-concussion-like symptoms in the wake of being ridden face-first into the glass by the Canadiens’ Max Pacioretty early in the second period of the Rangers’ 3-0 defeat in Montreal on Saturday, did not play last night. Michael Del Zotto missed his second straight with a hip or leg injury he sustained during the third period of last Thursday’s match in Ottawa, thus leaving the Blueshirts with a defense corps including Steve Eminger, Matt Gilroy and Stu Bickel in addition to Dan Girardi, Marc Staal and Anton Stralman.
larry.brooks@nypost.com