Rick Nash and the Rangers still have to get from here to there, but if No. 61 continues to make the progress connoted by his six consecutive days on the ice, then the Blueshirts could have their top winger in the lineup within approximately a week.
The seeming best-case scenario for the Rangers, who are in Montreal on Saturday before the Kings come to the Garden the following night, would be for Nash to make his return on Tuesday, at home against the Bruins. The more likely target, however, is either next Thursday in Dallas or a week from Saturday, Nov. 23, in Nashville.
Presuming no issues arise in the interim with Nash or his teammates, coach Alain Vigneault, for the first time, will have the club’s top six forwards at his disposal upon The Big Easy’s return. Ryan Callahan was sidelined for the season-opener while Carl Hagelin missed all three games Nash dressed prior to Nash’s Oct. 8 concussion in San Jose.
Nash’s insertion into the lineup will have a trickle-down effect on the team’s combinations and eventually allow Vigneault to get into more of a four-line rotation than he has employed thus far. Nash will either skate with Hagelin and Brad Richards while Callahan shifts to the right with Chris Kreider and Derek Stepan, or Nash himself will play with Kreider and Stepan.
A year ago, Nash was more productive with Stepan than with Richards — eight goals and 15 points in 282:04 at five-on-five with Stepan and with a slightly higher Corsi rating, as opposed to six goals and 11 points in 301:05 with No. 19 — but Richards was so far off his game that it is difficult to extrapolate much of value from that.
In either case, Mats Zuccarello, who has been effective with Kreider and Stepan, seems like the odd man out of the top-six rotation. Nash doesn’t return from IR to play in a bottom-six role, any more than, say, David Wright comes back from the DL to bat seventh in the order.
Zuccarello likely would slide to the third line with Derick Brassard and Brian Boyle while the fourth line would include Dominic Moore (due to return in Montreal from the oblique strain that has sidelined him for the last seven matches), Derek Dorsett and a winger — possibly Taylor Pyatt.
Pyatt, recovering from the concussion he sustained in Columbus on Nov. 7, has not skated since leaving the ice early in the second period of that match after being victimized by a Fedor Tyutin elbow.
That would leave J.T. Miller, likely Hartford-bound sooner rather than later, and Brandon Mashinter as endangered species.
Vigneault was known in Vancouver for going 12-deep with his forwards as much as was practical. The coach last week said he intends to get into more of a four-line rotation once he has a full complement of athletes on the bench.
“There are a couple of factors why I haven’t been going as much with four lines,” Vigneault said. “First, we lost a few players early in the season, and then we fell behind so early, I used the more offensive players a little bit more.
“But I do want to spread the minutes out more.”
Vigneault will never be accused of piling much extra weight on his thoroughbreds. In that regard (also) he is the anti-Tortorella. Last year with Vigneault behind the Vancouver bench, Daniel Sedin played 20 minutes or more in 17 matches while Henrik Sedin hit the 20-mark 22 times in the 48-game season. Thus far this year with John Tortorella running the show, Daniel has played at least 20 minutes in 19 of the Canucks’ 20 games while Henrik has been on that much 18 times.
The Rangers have a combined 18, 20-plus-minute outings among their forwards through 18 games, with Richards accounting for eight.
The ugly numbers: The Blueshirts have lost seven straight in regulation by the mind-boggling aggregate score of 25-3 and eight straight overall (0-7-1) in Montreal since a 4-3 victory via shootout on March 17, 2009. Carey Price has shut out the Rangers the past four times h has faced them in Montreal. Henrik Lundqvist, expected to back up Cam Talbot on Saturday, has a 4.76 GAA and .857 save percentage in his last nine starts there. The last Rangers goaltender, apart from Lundqvist, to win in Montreal was Mike Dunham on Nov. 1, 2003.