Ryan McDonagh, “grateful and thankful” that he did not suffer a second concussion as a result of the elbow to the head he took from Leo Komarov in Toronto last Thursday, holds no animus toward the Maple Leafs winger.
“You wish those hits were never a part of the game, but obviously they’re going to happen because it’s a fast-paced game and things can happen sometimes without the intent that it sometimes looks like,” McDonagh said after skating on his own for about 20 minutes after the Rangers practiced on Monday.
“[Komarov] did try to apologize during the game, but I was showering so we didn’t meet up. But he did message me, so I was real appreciative of that.”
As Komarov sits out a three-game suspension for the headshot, there is no timetable for the Blueshirts captain’s return. McDonagh will not play against the Devils Tuesday night in Newark, but will accompany the team on its trip to St. Louis and Dallas, where the Rangers will play Thursday night and Saturday afternoon, respectively.
McDonagh, who is dealing with a sore jaw and neck spasms, will go on the ice Tuesday morning and take shots against Antti Raanta, who will back up Henrik Lundqvist against New Jersey.
“I’ve been progressing and doing better every day,” McDonagh said. “This is the first time I [went] on the ice, just on my own, to start the process. I did a little bit of off-ice [Sunday] on the bike and have been continuing to feel more and more like myself every time.
“Hopefully it continues from here and I get back soon enough.”
When struck down by Komarov 18:58 into the first period of the Rangers’ eventual 4-2 victory, McDonagh was playing only his second match after missing four games with the concussion he had sustained on Wayne Simmonds’ gloved punch to the jaw in Philadelphia on Feb. 6.
The defenseman, who is not certain whether he will have to wear jaw protection when he returns, said he will have to do a better job of protecting himself against open-ice hits, though it is worth noting that the incident with Simmonds began with McDonagh getting his stick up across the Flyer’s head in order to protect himself against a check.
The Rangers, meanwhile, are 4-0-1 in the five games McDonagh has missed, while having won both contests in which he was injured and forced to leave before the first intermission(s).
So here’s Henrik Lundqvist’s view of the disallowed Kevin Hayes goal at 5:34 of the third period of Sunday’s 1-0 overtime victory over the Red Wings that was overturned on a coach’s challenge from Detroit’s Jeff Blashill because Oscar Lindberg’s skate clipped Jimmy Howard in the mask after he tripped over — or was tripped — by the Detroit goaltender:
“It was so close, I could have understand it going either way,” said Lundqvist, who watched the replay on the scoreboard video screen. “The contact definitely affected the way [Howard] played the shot, but I also thought he brought it on himself by tripping [Oscar]. The question also is: How much time was there between the contact and the shot?
“If it had been me, I would have been fine with it either way.”
Asked whether he watched the replay as a Ranger or as a goalie, Lundqvist laughed.
“Both,” he said.
The Blueshirts have killed nine straight power plays, including four on Sunday on which Detroit had 14 attempts in 8:00, but got only one shot on Lundqvist. The Rangers blocked nine (three apiece for Marc Staal and Kevin Klein; two for Jesper Fast; one for Dan Girardi) while four tries missed the net.
Dominic Moore won five of nine defensive zone draws after having won just 10 of 31 in the previous five contests.
The match against the Devils is the first of an extended stretch through which Rangers will play five of the next six, seven of the next nine and 10 of the next 13 on the road.