This day has been a long time coming, with doubts it would come at all anytime soon.
But on Saturday at the MSG Training Facility in Westchester, Rick Nash took the ice before Rangers practice and fired shots on two goalies. He skated around, felt good, and now finally is able to eye a return from his Oct. 8 concussion, which has kept him out since the third game of the season.
“Strung together a good three or four days, and it’s been all positive since then,” Nash said. “It’s tough when they take away the thing you love.”
That can also be said about the organization. Nash was injured on a hit from Brad Stuart in San Jose, and after the Rangers’ Garden match against the Panthers on Sunday night, Nash will have missed 14 straight. But now, at least the team can begin to fathom a somewhat-near future with him in the lineup.
“Obviously, he’s on the road to recovery,” general manager Glen Sather said. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t be skating. He still has a way to go. He’s got to get back into condition.”
Nash also acknowledged that — especially in terms of getting back into game shape.
“Four weeks and three days behind, that’s what I feel,” he said jokingly. “That’s going to take time on that aspect, to make sure the symptoms don’t come back around.”
Luckily for Nash, the only symptoms he said he experienced were headaches. In other, more severe, cases of post-concussion syndrome, things like nausea and sensitivity to light can occur.
This was Nash’s second concussion in as many years — he missed four games last season after a hit by the Bruins’ Milan Lucic early in the campaign.
“This year the symptoms just held on,” Nash said. “It seemed like I couldn’t shake them for a while. So it was definitely a lot different than last year.”
There was no rush for Nash to get back either, with his Rangers (8-8-0) having won five of their past seven to get back to .500 for the first time since they were 1-1. Nash doesn’t think he rushed back from his concussion last season, and no matter how the team was doing, was not about to rush back from this one, either.
“When you’re dealing with the brain, you always want to be careful,” he said. “Right now, last couple days, the symptoms have been gone. Skated today, this morning, felt pretty good. Now it’s a day-to-day thing, each day do more. See if anything creeps up, with the symptoms at night, and inch forward.”
It also hasn’t been easy for coach Alain Vigneault, who in his first season behind the Rangers bench has been trying to get his team on the same page mostly without their best player. Nash was obtained in a mega-deal with the Blue Jackets before last season, then led the Blueshirts with 21 goals in the lockout-shortened campaign of 2012-13.
“He’s an elite player,” Vigneault said. “He’s a player that has a tremendous amount of important minutes on the ice. So when you lose a player like that, it’s tough to replace.”
Nash said someone from the organization had been checking in with him daily, and he felt no pressure to try and return before ready. Yet now that he is making quantitative progress, coupled with a team that’s rolling, the anticipation for return is at a high.
“He’s a big part of our team,” Vigneault said. “We’re looking forward to having him back.”