NHL

‘Excited’ Marc Staal returning to Rangers lineup

BRANDON, Fla. — Marc Staal was not about to mince words when he had good news to deliver.

“I’m in,” the Rangers alternate captain and defensive stalwart said at the Ice Sports Forum, the Lightning’s training facility, after practice on Monday afternoon as the Blueshirts prepared to head off for Sunrise, Fla., where they will play the Panthers on Tuesday, a 5 p.m. start on New Year’s Eve.

“I’m excited to get back,” said Staal, who missed 10 straight games after suffering a concussion on Dec. 7, his second concussion in the past two years to go along with a horrific eye injury. “The goal is to help to try and win some games. It’s a good feeling to get back in.”

Staal’s return is a bit ahead of what was assumed to be his timetable, as he began skating just over a week ago, and now has a handful of full-contact practices under his belt.

“If I wasn’t confident in playing, I wouldn’t be out there,” Staal said. “So you just have to get the confidence going in the game. Play like you’re playing the first game of the season, focus on the things you need to do on the ice.”

The difference of the Rangers’ defense with Staal in the lineup is significant, and the person who knows better than anyone is coach Alain Vigneault.

By having the presence of a shutdown player behind the first unit of Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, there is now some flexibility for Vigneault, which he thinks will allow his team to be better five-on-five. He particularly believes that means McDonagh can be more offensive, both by his own virtue and by Vigneault allowing him to be on the ice for more offensive face-offs.

“With Marc in the lineup, what we’ve got there is a pretty good one-two punch, as far as D’s that can play against top-end opponents,” Vigneault said. “When you’ve got Mac and you don’t have Marc, Mac logs a lot of minutes. I think what we do, five-on-five, is we lose a little bit of his offensive potential.”

The only full-time Rangers’ defensemen who have started the majority of their shifts in the defensive zone are Girardi (55.3 percent), McDonagh (54.3) and Staal (51.7). In contrast, John Moore starts an almost ludicrous 65.9 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, while Justin Falk (59.0) and Michael Del Zotto (57.0) are not too far behind.

It seems Anton Stralman — who is hoping to return Tuesday from a left wrist injury that kept him out of Sunday’s 4-3 win over the Lightning — is the only one close to being equitable, starting 52.3 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone.

“When you have Staal and Mac, then you have your left side,” Vigneault said. “You have basically, almost 45-50 minutes of the game covered on the left side, then you have maybe 15 left. Marc is a real good defender, might not be as efficient offensively as Mac is to our team, so when we can permit Mac to jump up in the attack and take more maybe offensive zone face-offs, makes us a better team five-on-five.”

What’s indisputable is the Rangers are a better team with Staal in the lineup, and luckily for them, that is again the case.