Last year Henrik Sedin ranked 42nd among forwards in average ice time with 19:20 per game, with Daniel 54th at 19:01 and Ryan Kesler 57th at 18:57, while the previous season, Kesler ranked 27th at 20:05, Henrik 59th at 19:05 and Daniel Sedin 73rd at 18:48 playing for Alain Vigneault in Vancouver.
This year, with John Tortorella behind the Canucks’ bench, Kesler is second among NHL forwards with 22:12 per game, Henrik is third at 21:59 and Daniel is fourth at 21:49 per game.
Meanwhile, Brad Richards, who leads Rangers’ forwards in ice time, is 61st at 19:02 per game and Ryan Callahan is 73rd at 18:44 playing for Vigneault a year after Callahan (21:30) was fourth and Derek Stepan (20:55) was 10th with Tortorella running the show.
As differences go, the difference in the approach to riding their best players and toward keeping a semblance of four-line balance, is as stark as the difference in temperaments between the two coaches who changed places in the offseason.
Where Tortorella could err on the side of one extreme (and especially in cutting down his bench so quickly because of a lack of trust in so many of his players he nailed to it), Vigneault seems prone to err on the other side of it.
“During training camp, [Vigneault] asked us to work with him as far as ice time is concerned,” Richards told The Post before Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Devils at the Garden. “He said that we were going to have to make an adjustment.
“But he also said that part of that had to do with the way the schedule was designed, so I imagine that there’s probably going to be somewhat of a change with this stretch we have at home,” the alternate captain said. “For the long haul, though, I think we’re going to be reasonably fresh.”
Saturday’s match may reverberate deep into the season if Marc Staal, as is initially feared, sustained a concussion off a hit to the chin from Reid Boucher 6:40 into the third. The defenseman, who missed the first 36 games of the 2011-12 season with post-concussion symptoms, fired his helmet down in anger on his way to the locker room.
Another consequential injury would be devastating for Staal, who suffered a serious eye injury that sidelined him last year. It would be devastating to the team, as well.
The match marked the club’s eighth game in 15 nights. The ninth in 16 nights will be played on Sunday against the Capitals. The game against New Jersey also marked the opening of a nine-game homestand that will be played within 17 nights.
“This is, in my estimation, going to be the first time this year where we have a segment of games where we basically have no travel so there is a possibility that some guys might play a little more minutes,” the coach said. “But I’ve always believed in a four-line rotation, the fourth line being anywhere between 7-and-10 minutes, the third line 10-to-13, and your top two lines usually 17:00 and more.
“Because of the previous stretch, I would say it was a little more balanced between the four lines. I could see it going a little more top end now.”
Vigneault did give Richards 20:38 and Callahan 20:37, but Rick Nash, who never but never double-shirts, got only 18:59 when more was merited.
Fatigue destroyed the Rangers in the 2012 Battle of the Hudson against the Devils. The Blueshirts’ best chance at a Stanley Cup since 1994 wasn’t truly lost when Adam Henrique scored in overtime of Game 6 of the conference finals, but when the team was forced into a seven-game second-round by the Caps following a seven-game first-round against the Senators.
It was the minutes on top of the battering and bruising the Rangers’ best players — essentially all of the Rangers’ players — incurred blocking shots and hitting everything that moved. If ever there was an example of diminishing returns, the 2012 tournament was it.
Vigneault on Saturday morning repeated the importance of a team’s best players being a team’s best players. It follows that they need the ice time commensurate with their status in order to be at their best.