Marian Gaborik turned and knocked twice on the wood that frames his locker, a quick little touch of luck the Rangers winger hopes follows him through this upcoming shortened season more than it did at the end of last.
Gaborik is just more than seven months removed from having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, an injury that quelled his effectiveness during the Rangers’ playoff run, which ended after six games in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Devils.
“I feel good. My shoulder feels fine,” Gaborik said yesterday, before turning around and giving his quick musical appeasement to the hockey gods. “It’s good to get back here and get ready to start playing.”
After leading the team in the regular season with 41 goals, Gaborik’s shoulder was hurt on a hit into the boards during Game 3 of the first-round series against the Senators. He finished 20 postseason games with five goals, and yesterday at the MSG Training Facility in Westchester was the first time Gaborik was back with what was close to his full team. The only players missing were Jeff Halpern (whose wife just had a baby) and Michael Haley.
“It’s going to be a hard 10 days until we start, but everybody has to get ready and jump into it,” Gaborik said following the third players-organized skate since the new collective bargaining agreement was reached in principle Sunday morning. “I think everybody is in the same spot, so we just have to make sure we work hard.”
With the NHL Board of Governors ratifying the CBA yesterday, it’s now up to the Players’ Association to do the same in hopes of training camp officially opening up Sunday. By then, Gaborik wants to be over the next real hurdle, which is getting involved in some contact drills and seeing how his shoulder holds up.
“I need to get some contact drills and stuff like that,” said Gaborik, who was fully cleared to practice in mid-December. “Having not been in game-like situations, it’s going to be a good test in camp and I’m looking forward to go back on the ice.”
Because coaches are not technically permitted to be involved in practices as of yet — although coach John Tortorella was there watching — there is little to be made of who skated next to whom. But there were only three forwards wearing white jerseys yesterday, and that placed Gaborik alongside Brad Richards and new addition Rick Nash — the kind of dream combination that makes any Rangers fan swell with anticipation.
“[Nash has] proven himself in the league to be a great power forward, a great goal scorer,” Gaborik said. “He’s going to add not just scoring but overall power in our offense. The scoring should spread out, and I think we’ll have four lines that can play. We’ve done it last year and I think this year we can be even better.”
Last year, Gaborik and his teammates finished the regular season first in the conference, but couldn’t score with enough consistency to get through the Devils and on to the Stanley Cup Finals. This season, which is expected to be 48 games and start on or around Jan. 19, the Rangers hope that problem is remedied.
At least, at the expense of the four-month lockout, Gaborik now can begin the season on the ice, healthy, and ready to make an immediate impact.
“We’re very hungry, obviously, especially with not playing for this amount of time,” Gaborik said. “Everybody came back with a huge smile and everybody decided to get back to work, especially when we came up short last year. And this year is going to be short, so we really want to try to be as best as we can and go far. ”
bcyrgalis@nypost.com