COLUMBUS, Ohio –Last night, Rick Nash. Tonight at the Garden, Alex Ovechkin. Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby.
In other words, life will just get easier and easier for the Rangers and the shutdown defense pair of Marc Staal and Dan Girardi.
“Thanks for the reminder,” Staal said, chuckling, following the Blueshirts’ 3-1 defeat here last night to the Blue Jackets. “We just look at it as a challenge and prepare that way.”
Staal, who played the point on the second power-play unit, finished with 26:05 of ice after getting 19:14 through the first two periods. Girardi, who did not get on the PP, played 20:29.
“You can find times in the game when you can conserve your energy,” said Staal, who scored his fifth goal of the season and third on the power play by going to the net and finishing Ruslan Fedotenko’s feed from behind Steve Mason’s net. “You pick and choose.
“When we’re working as well as we did down low, you can catch a bit of a breather back on the blue line when we’re cycling. When we played as well as a unit as we did, there are always guys helping out.”
The Blueshirts are 7-0 on the second nights of back-to-backs, a perfect mark the club will be challenged to maintain tonight against Washington.
*
Michael Del Zotto
, who returned to the lineup following Thursday’s healthy scratch in Ottawa, was reinstated on the power-play first-unit left point, across from Derek Stepan
on the right side. The 40-year-old point men — COMBINED
— moved the puck well, but with each 20-year-old a passer rather than a shooter, it’s akin to a basketball team playing with two point guards.
Former Ranger Fedor Tyutin
, sent to Columbus three seasons ago for Nik Zherdev
, returned to the Jackets’ lineup after two straight healthy scratches. The Rangers may have interest in re-acquiring Tyutin, a left-hand shot (who played the right side) with one more year at $2,843,750 remaining on his contract.
Erik Christensen
, who was on the first PP unit with Marian Gaborik
and Ryan Callahan,
was skating on a fourth line with Sean Avery
and Todd White.
He had a dreadful night at the dots, going 1-8. . . . Del Zotto replaced Steve Eminger
in the lineup. Eminger, whose back locked after taking a tumble in the third period in Ottawa, tried it at the morning skate, but left the ice quickly.