NHL

Rangers’ Staal missing second straight game

Marc Staal is missing his second straight game Tuesday night with what is believed to be an aggravation of the left knee injury he originally sustained in Carolina on Feb. 22 that kept the defenseman out of the next three matches.

Ryan McDonagh will play against the Panthers at the Garden when the Rangers seek their fifth straight victory.

The Rangers have been silent regarding both the nature and severity of Staal’s injury, but the associate captain has not been on the ice since Friday’s game against the Canadiens in which he logged 25:19 on ice, including 9:36 in the third period.

McDonagh, the victim of the Matt Cooke elbow to the jaw during the third period of Sunday afternoon’s 5-2 victory in Pittsburgh that earned the Penguins winger a suspension for the final 10 games of the regular season plus the first round of the playoffs, did not practice on Monday for “precautionary reasons.”

“I feel good; my legs didn’t have a lot of energy, but that probably comes from not skating yesterday,” McDonagh said following Tuesday morning’s optional skate. “The pain in my jaw is slowly going away day by day.”

McDonagh, who was examined by a doctor in Pittsburgh for immediate concussion-related symptoms at the conclusion of the match, said that the Rangers’ training staff worked with him Monday.

“They told me some things I should do to help me feel better,” said the rookie defenseman, whose left side of his face and neck remain swollen.

“They aren’t terribly complex — basically get rest.”

McDonagh repeated his belief first expressed following the game that Cooke could not have had intent to nail him in the face before endorsing the NHL-imposed sanction.

“The league is really pushing to get these hits out the game,” he said. “It’s a pretty big statement.”

Sean Avery, ensconced as the club’s 13th forward, is scratched for the third straight game and fourth of the past five.