NHL

No ifs, ands, or butts — Brassard is back

Derick Brassard seemingly has heard his fair share of jokes over the past couple days, but now that the Rangers center has recovered enough from what his coach Alain Vigneault called an “inflamed posterior,” he is expecting to be back in the lineup Sunday at home against the Flames.

“It sounds a little bit funny when you say I have a bum injury,” Brassard said after practicing fully on Saturday. “But I want to get back [Sunday] and try to help the team get two points.”

Brassard said the injury occurred some time in the first couple shifts of Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Predators, and although he kept playing — and later took a hard shot off his right foot — after the game he could barely sit down or bend over. He tested the injury at the morning skate before Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets, but found he couldn’t push off and couldn’t play.

“I was not feeling 100 percent and I didn’t think I could help the team,” said Brassard, who also missed Friday’s optional practice. “I think the last couple days [helped] get it better for [Sunday].”

During Saturday’s practice, Vigneault had Brassard on a line with Brad Richards on the left wing and Mats Zuccarello on the right.

The new top line was Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Rick Nash, while Dominic Moore centered Benoit Pouliot and Derek Dorsett. Brian Boyle was the fourth-line center between an assortment of Taylor Pyatt, Carl Hagelin and Arron Asham, the latter of which is the most likely to be scratched.

After three straight days of working out off the ice, defenseman Marc Staal did not work out on Saturday, but that does not necessarily mean he suffered a setback as he tries to recover from his Dec. 7  concussion in a game against the Devils. The team officially had no update on his status, and Vigneault said he had not seen Staal on Saturday and it is “probably part of the process.”

In Staal’s absence, Vigneault does seem dead set on breaking up his top defensive pair of Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, placing McDonagh with Anton Stralman and Girardi with Michael Del Zotto.

“It needs more balance with Marc out,” the coach said. “Obviously Dan and Ryan have a done a real good job of playing big minutes against top lines — especially the top line. Both are on our power play and both are killing penalties, so with Marc out, him being such a good defender, we thought we had to switch it up a little bit and have a little better balance.”

Vigneault said he was unsure if Dylan McIlrath would play again after making his NHL debut on Thursday, having to watch the Flames game against the Sabres at 2 p.m. on Saturday before setting his lineup. The 6-foot-5, gnarly defenseman skated in practice with John Moore on the third pair, seemingly making Justin Falk the odd man out again.

“He moved the puck on a couple of occasions well, he defended well, he forced the other team to take a penalty,” Vigneault said of McIlrath’s first game. “I thought for the most part, for the first game, he played good for us.”