Maybe there was a little bit more long-term view from Rangers coach John Tortorella on Monday when he seemed rather unconcerned about the health of his star center, Brad Richards.
“He’ll be fine,” Tortorella said at the time.
Tuesday night, before the team’s 4-2 win over the Flyers at the Garden, Tortorella was singing a little different tune, as Richards was ruled out for his first game since being slammed into the boards head-first by the Sabres’ Patrick Kaleta on Sunday.
“Banged up,” is all Tortorella would dourly say about Richards.
The league’s disciplinarian, VP Brendan Shanahan, gave Kaleta a five-game suspension for the hit. As per league mandate, the health of Richards was paramount in making the decision on the length of the suspension.
In the video explanation on the league’s website, Shanahan starts his summary by saying the play was boarding. The second point he makes is about Richards.
“Richards was shaken up on the play,” Shanahan said, “but returned to the game soon after, and completed it.”
After the game, Richards said he “didn’t know where to begin” when describing where he was in pain. The good news was he said it wasn’t his head, a quick and very unscientific dismissal of a concussion.
Yet he didn’t practice on Monday, and was on the ice only briefly yesterday morning during the pregame skate. Once he went off, he was not made available to media, and the team provided no update on his status.
* Taking Richards’ place in the lineup was enforcer Micheal Haley, who was called up hours before the game from the Connecticut Whale (AHL) and made little impact in his 4:12 of ice time.
He did, however, manage to grab Scott Hartnell’s head when the Flyers winger fell over the boards into the Rangers’ bench in the closing minutes of the game. Hartnell got up and shoved Haley, who looked shocked as fellow bruiser Stu Bickel reached across and pushed Hartnell.
Both Hartnell and Bickel got 10-minute misconducts, and Hartnell waved to the Garden fans on his way to the locker room.
* Forward Arron Asham missed his sixth straight game, with Tortorella offering “no update” on his status.
Asham previously had described his injury as back spasms, and the rugged winger tested it on the ice by himself in Montreal last Saturday. He hasn’t skated since.