WASHINGTON — Marc Staal doesn’t know if or when he’ll be able to play again this spring, but the alternate captain said he made the decision to pull himself from the Rangers’ Game 4 lineup against the Caps on Wednesday because of issues with his vision that day and not because of anything he experienced in his Game 3 return on Monday.
“I don’t want to go into detail about what happened,” Staal — who also missed last night’s 2-1 overtime defeat in Game 5 — said after participating in yesterday’s optional morning skate. “It’s hard to explain and I don’t really want to try to and have it be misunderstood.
“But it didn’t go particularly well [at Wednesday’s morning skate] and as the day went on I couldn’t see myself getting into game situations.”
Staal had played 17:17 in Monday’s Game 3 after having been sidelined for 29 games with the right eye injury he sustained when he was struck by a deflected shot on March 5 against the Flyers.
Though his timing was obviously not sharp in that Rangers’ 4-3 victory, he repeated yesterday what he had reported both immediately following the match and again following Tuesday’s practice.
“Like I said, it went the way I thought it would,” said the defenseman, who absorbed a huge hit from Troy Brouwer that sent him tumbling backward into the boards in the first period. “To come back after nine weeks off definitely isn’t easy, but what happened in Game 3 and the way I played didn’t stop me.”
Staal would not speculate about the possibility of playing again in this series that the Rangers trail 3-2 heading into tomorrow’s Game 6 at the Garden. Game 7 would be played in Washington on Monday night if necessary.
“With this thing, the way I’ve been dealing with it is that I wake up in the morning and take it from there,” he said. “I’ll wake up [today] and go at it again.
“If I’m ready to go, I want to play. I couldn’t speculate one way or the other [whether it will be possible].”
* Ryane Clowe spoke yesterday morning for the first time since returning to action in Game 4, felt healthy after missing four games with what is believed to be a concussion, but the physical forward suffered a setback last night.
Less than five minutes into the game, Capitals forward Jason Chimera smashed Clowe’s head into the glass and was called for boarding. Clowe returned for one more shift, but did not play the rest of the game.
* Anton Stralman went limping into the locker room 13 minutes into the first period after receiving a hit from Chimera, but the defenseman was able to return to the ice a few minutes later and stay in the game. … The Rangers have won only one of their past 11 playoff games in Washington since winning the first two games of the 2009 first-round series, in which they blew a 3-1 series lead.
NHL representatives and international hockey and Olympic officials met yesterday in Stockholm, and though no agreement has been finalized yet, all sides expected NHL players will be allowed to participate in the Games again.
Henrik Lundqvist, who carried Sweden to a gold medal in Turin in 2006, was happy to hear the news.
“I think we should be [in the Olympics],” he said. “It’s good for the game.”
* Capitals right wing Martin Erat missed the game because of an upper-body injury. Capitals coach Adam Oates said the forward was feeling better, but he would not reveal the results of an MRI. Erat was injured in a collision with Alex Ovechkin and Derek Stepan late in the first period of Game 4.
In Erat’s absence, 19-year-old Tom Wilson, the 16th overall pick in the 2012 Draft, made his NHL debut.