PHILADELPHIA — Other than the team-wide lapse in urgency that likely cost the Rangers a victory in Sunday’s Game 2, Ryan McDonagh’s most ordinary (at best) play through the first three matches against the Flyers has been the most surprising and most disappointing development of this opening-round series from the New York perspective.
But the struggles of the shutdown pair’s left defenseman, targeted from the start of the series after having been sidelined for the final five matches of the regular-season with the left shoulder injury he sustained in Vancouver on April 1, have not proved fatal to a Rangers’ team that will try to extend its lead in the series to 3-1 in Friday night’s Game 4.
That in large part is because of excellent work from Marc Staal, the second-pair left defenseman who was Dan Girardi’s shutdown pair partner until he lost that assignment while sidelined for the first 36 games of the 2011-12 season with a concussion.
Staal, with support from partner Anton Stralman, has played with the authority and the physical edge that has enabled coach Alain Vigneault to send his defense out against the Flyers’ top units without undue worry and unhealthy obsession over getting McDonagh and Girardi on against Claude Giroux’s line.
Indeed, Staal has played approximately 12:15 against Giroux at even-strength the last two games while McDonagh has been on for about 13:10 against the Philadelphia captain, who has been limited to two assists and two shots on nine attempts thus far.
All sports ultimately can be distilled to a “horses for courses” philosophy. The Flyers’ relentless stick-jabs, slashes to the hands and post-whistle nonsense creates an environment in which the more physically inclined and more jagged-edged Staal thrives.
“I always like playoff hockey where everything is a lot tighter, and all of the details like having good sticks and proper body position, and all the stuff I try to do well during the season become even more critical,” Staal said following Thursday’s practice at the Garden. “This kind of game suits me more than playing wide open.”
The Staal-Stralman pair wasn’t at its best down the stretch, but each has picked up his game individually. They have not been on together for an even-strength goal-against, Staal plus-four and Stralman — on with McDonagh for the Flyers’ first goal of the series — at plus two. Staal and Stralman have the best two Corsi and Corsi-close rankings among the club’s defensemen.
“Our goal is to be no worse than even at the end of the night,” Staal said. “We want to make sure we defend well and make plays out of our own zone.
“For the most part we’ve been doing that. Certainly we’ve been better than we were toward the end of the regular season. We had a bit of a dip there.”
The Rangers aren’t likely to have the same kind of dip in energy from Game 3, and they did in Game 2 that followed their Game 1 victory. But in order to prevail, they must maintain the discipline they have exhibited through three games of incessant extracurricular nonsense coming from the other side, much of it focusing on the hacking of Blueshirts’ hands.
“We talk about all of that all the time,” Staal said. “In a lot of playoff series, you have your meetings at the start that focus on what you need to do to be successful and then kind of move on to game-by-game detail.
“In this, though, with emotions running high and thing maybe carrying over from one game to the next, you need to check back and remind yourself all the time,” No. 18 told The Post. “We talk about maintaining our discipline and playing whistle-to-whistle in pretty much every single meeting we have.”
Staal, a Ranger since the start of the 2007-08 season, missed all but one game of last year’s playoffs, sidelined by the right eye injury he sustained when struck in the face by a puck during a March 5, 2013 match against the Flyers. That long-term absence followed the concussion-related half-season absence in 2011-12 and preceded this year’s 10-game stretch in which he was sidelined by another concussion.
If there is anyone who recognizes how precious and fleeting an NHL career can be, it is Staal.
“This is my seventh year, and it feels like I got here yesterday, so yes, I appreciate it every second that I’m here,” Staal said. “I relish every opportunity to be in the playoffs. You only get so many cracks at winning the Stanley Cup; only so many chances with the kind of good team we have.
“My brothers are green with envy at my situation right now,” Marc said of Eric and Jordan, whose Carolina team missed the playoffs for the second straight season. “I get to come to the rink every day. I’m lucky to be here.”
The Rangers are fortunate to have him picking up where McDonagh is leaving off.