It will take some time longer than Chris Drury had hoped before the Rangers captain will be able to return to the lineup in the aftermath of a CT-scan yesterday on his broken left index finger, The Post has learned.
“It was not good,” a disappointed Drury said on his way out of the Garden after the Rangers fell 3-1 to the Penguins.
Drury, who missed the first two games of the season with the broken finger he sustained on the third day of training camp and then re-broke the finger in two places during the Oct. 15 home opener, has been skating on his own without permission to grip a stick.
It’s believed the captain had targeted either this weekend or next week for his return, but that will have to be pushed back following the CT-scan that revealed the finger has not fully healed.
Still, The Post has learned the captain will be permitted to skate with a stick within the next couple of days before being slowly integrated into practice drills and then contact.
It was estimated that the captain would miss 6-to-8 weeks when he went down. Friday will mark seven weeks to the day.
*
Alex Frolov
, without a point in his last five games and with one (1-0) in his last nine, played two shifts in the third period after a miserable opening two periods.
Ruslan Fedotenko
, also without a point in his last five and with two (1-1) in the last nine, got three shifts in the third after struggling through the first two periods that included an egregious turnover that led to the Penguins’ first goal.
Artem Anisimov
, also without a point through five games and with one in nine (1-0), got three shifts in the third as well.
Sean Avery
, engaged throughout, finished with 13:57 of ice after getting 5:59 in the third. Avery, credited with four hits, fought Tyler Kennedy
in the third period, his third fight (Nashville’s Jordan Tootoo
on Saturday, Tampa Bay’s Mattias Ohlund
on Wednesday) in the last four matches. . . . Brandon Prust
fought Mike Rupp
in the first.
Michal Rozsival
was the Rangers’ best player in 24:54 of ice. . . . Coach John Tortorella
moved Todd White
up from the fourth line to center Brandon Dubinsky
and Ryan Callahan
in the third. . . . Derek Boogaard
remained sidelined for the third straight game with a shoulder injury.
The Blueshirts were 0-for-3 on the power play while killing Pittsburgh’s lone man advantage, the 10th time in the last 11 games the PK unit has been spotless.
The Rangers open a home-and-home with Islanders at the Coliseum on Thursday that concludes the following night at the Garden.