THE news will come soon enough, and so will the diagnosis that will be apparent by the time the Rangers play the Capitals at the Garden Sunday night.
In the meantime, there is no need to belabor the obvious. If, as feared, Marc Staal suffered a concussion on the Reid Boucher hit to the jaw he sustained midway through the third period of the Rangers’ 4-3 overtime defeat to the Devils on Saturday, then there is no justice in the hockey world. No justice at all.
The impact of Staal’s potential absence on the blue line could be crippling for the Blueshirts, who still are trying to compensate for the loss of Michael Sauer to a concussion two years and two days ago.
But even more so, it would be personally devastating for the 26-year-old alternate captain, who threw down his helmet in anger following hit as he made his way to the locker room, from which he did not return the rest of the match.
There’s no rhyme or reason to this. Two years ago Staal missed the first 36 games dealing with the after-effects of a concussion he sustained on Feb. 22, 2011, at Carolina on a hit from his brother, Eric. Last season, the Rangers defenseman missed all but one of the final 37 matches with a serious right eye injury he sustained when struck by a deflected shot on March 5.
As John F. Kennedy once famously said at a presidential press conference more than a half-century ago, “Life is unfair.”
Coach Alain Vigneault was clinical in his assessment of what Staal’s potential absence might mean. He took a coach’s tone, talking about the opportunity others would receive if No. 18 is sidelined.
Of course Vigneault did. That’s his job. What else would he do? Take his puck and go home?
Injuries are a part of sports. The games go on. Teammates have no time to fret. This is the life they choose.
That doesn’t, however, mean that it doesn’t stink. Because it does.
The injury to Staal — who was rattled on a high hit delivered by Michael Ryder late in the first period — in large measure overshadows the fact the Rangers had Saturday’s game won in the second period before it was lost in the third … before it was tied in the final minute of regulation on a power-play goal before it was ultimately lost in overtime on a power-play goal.
Suddenly the Rangers, who finally have a third digit to add to their record at 15-14-1, are having trouble protecting leads in the third. They lost 3-2 in Boston a week ago Friday after going into the third up 2-1. They had to scramble to hang on the previous game, a 3-0 edge over the dreadful Panthers cut to 3-2 late before finally clamping down.
This one was one that got away. It was a victory that got away and a point that got away, even if Chris Kreider went to the net to get the equalizer against Martin Brodeur — maybe playing the final game of his career at the Garden, or at least the final game of his career at the Garden in a Devils’ uniform — at 19:38 of the third while New Jersey had a man in the box and the Blueshirts added a sixth attacker when Henrik Lundqvist vacated the net.
It was 2-0 for the Rangers in the first minute of the second period against a weary team not only playing the second end of a back-to-back but its 11th game in 18 nights. The Rangers, however, could not seal it. There were far too many shifts on which the Blueshirts were pinned in their own end.
Kreider, emerging as a serious threat to win the Calder as Rookie of the Year, is becoming one of the NHL’s most immovable forces from in front. That’s where he was to chip home the loose puck that all but ensured that the Rangers would get at least one point out of the match.
That’s all they got in this game during which calamity appears to have struck Marc Staal once again.