It wasn’t the smoothest of debuts for Dylan McIlrath, but at least it’s behind him now.
The Rangers’ 21-year-old defenseman, nicknamed “The Undertaker” for his pugilistic instincts, made his first NHL appearance in Thursday night’s 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets at the Garden. He played 8:55 in place of Justin Falk on the team’s third pair, and he took a delayed penalty on his third shift that never got called because the Blue Jackets scored before the whistle could be blown.
“It was just kind of getting my nerves under control,” said McIlrath, whose penalty would have come as a result of racing up the ice and trying to decapitate Boone Jenner. “Once I settled that down, I think in the second and third, I started making better reads.”
McIlrath got four shifts in the second period and three in the third and didn’t play the final 10:12 of the game. The 10th overall pick from 2010 was leading the AHL with 115 penalty minutes in 24 games, and although he tried, he couldn’t pick a fight.
“He definitely brings size and hopefully some physicality to our game,” coach Alain Vigneault said before the game. “He’s done that, whether it be in junior or the American league, and hopefully he can do it at this level.”
After quickly testing it on the ice at the morning skate, center Derick Brassard was ruled out of the lineup with what Vigneault called an “inflamed posterior.”
Brassard had fallen on his backside during Tuesday’s 4-1 home loss to the Predators — along with taking a hard shot off his right foot — and didn’t practice Wednesday. Vigneault called his situation (which has made everyone giggle a little) as “day-to-day.”
With Brassard out and captain Ryan Callahan out four-to-six weeks with a second-degree MCL sprain, it was Arron Asham, Derek Dorsett, Taylor Pyatt and Beniot Pouliot all getting in up front.
Asham got called up Monday and played his first game since Oct. 10 on Tuesday, getting just 6:33 of ice time. He got even less on Thursday, starting on a line with Dominic Moore and Pyatt and yet finishing with 3:32 total — three shifts in the first, two in the second, and none in the third.
Dorsett played in his second straight game after missing three in a row with a sore left wrist. Pyatt and Pouliot were both healthy scratches on Tuesday, but the team currently has just 12 healthy forwards.