PHILADELPHIA — A scare went through the entire Rangers organization on Friday night when No. 1 defenseman Ryan McDonagh got his arm caught in the boards and then all of sudden grabbed his left shoulder in pain.
McDonagh had missed the final five games of the regular season with a left-shoulder injury, suffered on a huge, two-sided hit in Vancouver on April 1. So with just over five minutes gone by in the third period, McDonagh put his shoulder into the Flyers’ Zac Rinaldo, then as he turned, his hand got caught and it put his shoulder in an awkward position.
“It’s fine,” McDonagh said after the Rangers lost 2-1 in Game 4 of their first-round series at Wells Fargo Center, the best-of-seven contest now knotted at two games apiece going into Sunday afternoon’s Game 5 at the Garden. “Just a little stinger.”
Even though McDonagh went to the bench in obvious pain, he didn’t miss a shift. He played a game-high 28:02, and said he was no worse for the wear.
“I just go when the coach tells me,” he said. “Everyone is going hard, everyone is going to play big, important minutes.”
The Rangers haven’t won a playoff series in less than seven games since the first round in 2008, when they beat the Devils in five. They have won three series in the interim, all taken to the do-or-die brink — the 2012 first round against the Senators, the 2012 second round against the Capitals, and the 2013 first round again against the Caps.
“Everybody that comes into a playoff would like to win in four, but the opposition has something to say about it,” first-year Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “There is so little separating the teams now that it is more than normal the series are hard-fought and long. It’s a good league — everybody is trying their best.”
There were no changes in the Rangers lineup, meaning forward Dan Carcillo stayed in while 23-year-old Swedish rookie Jesper Fast remained a healthy scratch for the second straight game.
Carcillo couldn’t exactly match his performance from Game 3, when he was an energetic force in his Rangers postseason debut, eventually scoring the final goal in a 4-1 win. In this one, he played 9:51 and took an offsetting roughing penalty after a tussle with Brayden Schenn.
Forward Chris Kreider skated by himself at the other end of the rink during the morning skate, still recovering from March 28 surgery on his left hand that has sidelined him indefinitely. He was doing conditioning drills, and not stick-handling with his left hand.