BICK’ CHANCE: Stu Bickel (right, checking the Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds in a preseason game) will make his NHL regular-season debut tonight in Newark, replacing injured Steve Eminger as the Rangers face the Devils. (Getty Images)
Even as Marc Staal’s progress accelerates in his recovery from the post-concussion symptoms that have sidelined him all season, the Rangers face the challenge of playing three games in the next four nights against rivalry opponents with an already thin blue line further depleted by injuries.
Starting with tonight’s game in New Jersey that precedes matches at the Garden on Thursday against the Islanders and Friday against the Flyers, the burden on Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Michael Del Zotto and, yep, Anton Stralman will increase in conjunction with the absence of Steve Eminger and the likely absence of Jeff Woywitka.
Eminger, who had moved up from the third pair to Del Zotto’s right side on the second pair after Michael Sauer incurred, on Dec. 5, a concussion from which he is not close to returning, will be sidelined with a separated right shoulder he sustained early in the second period of Saturday’s 3-2 victory in Phoenix, according to coach John Tortorella.
Woywitka is probably out at least tonight with a left ankle injury he suffered on Saturday blocking a third-period shot. That injury prevented him from completing yesterday’s practice.
Stu Bickel, a 6-foor-4, 207-pound, 25-year-old, will make his NHL debut replacing Eminger. Tim Erixon will play if Woywitka is unable to go.
Tortorella said he is opting for Bickel rather than Erixon as his first sub because of the Bickel’s more physical nature and, “because of the team we’re playing against.”
Regardless of whether Woywitka can play — chances are Tortorella will opt for Erixon if there’s uncertainty about Woywitka’s ability to make it through the match — the coach will lean heavily on his top four, as he did on Saturday after Eminger was forced out of the game at the 4:19 mark of the second.
Tortorella, whose team has been treading frozen water in going 3-3-1 in the last seven, gave Woywitka just one second-period shift for four seconds after the 13:37 mark and then just three third-period turns worth 2:08 on Saturday. The coach instead heaped time on his top two pairs, which is nothing new.
Girardi leads the NHL in ice time with 27:35 per with McDonagh 13th at 25:05. Del Zotto has averaged 24:00 (overall 22:40) since Sauer was forced out. Stralman played 20:18 in St. Louis last Thursday and 20:01 against the Coyotes.
It would of course make it easier on the defense if the Rangers are able to generate a forecheck and down-low attack that has been inconsistent, if not absent, for most of the last three games, a timeframe that perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, just about coincides with Sean Avery’s banishment to the land of the living dead.
Avery, who skated on a fifth line with the injured Wojtek Wolski and likely scratch Erik Christensen, appears destined to be in street clothes for the fifth straight match.
“Are we dead-on? No,” Tortorella asked and answered. “But no team plays perfectly through the season.
“Hopefully our details and pace will be consistent.”
Staal, who has amped up his regimen as he has skated with the team for the last week, disclosed that he hopes to be cleared for contact drills, “within a few days, if everything goes well.”
“I haven’t had any bad days mixed in for a while,” said Staal, who did not participate in contact drills the handful of days he skated in training camp. “I’m still trying to get into better shape and get my conditioning back to where it was, but I’m getting closer, I’m making progress.
“It’s fun for me to come to the rink. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that way.”