The road back from Marc Staal continued again on Monday morning, as the Rangers alternate captain took part in what coach Alain Vigneault called “a real hard go” on the Garden ice before his team beat the Maple Leafs, 2-1, in the shootout. Vigneault said Staal “responded real well” after the workout.
The alternate captain and stalwart defenseman has been out since suffering a concussion as a result of a shoulder-to-chin hit from Devils rookie Reid Boucher on Dec. 7, and Vigneault has been grasping at straws in an attempt to fill the void.
“Hopefully his recovery will continue,” Vigneault said, “because he’s a real important player for us.”
Vigneault is in his first year behind the Rangers bench, and has found out firsthand just how integral Staal is to his lineup. The nine-game homestand just ended with two wins, but the pedestrian 3-4-2 mark was not coincidental to Staal being hurt in the first game.
“He’s one of our better defenders,” Vigneault said of Staal, before making note of how that defensive depth allows the coach to play Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi as the shutdown first pair at all times. “It permits Ryan to play such important minutes. It permits us to have two real good defenders playing against the other team’s top line.
“Not to say that our other defensemen can’t defend, but Marc does defend real well. He’s good real good hockey sense, he’s got a real good stick. Hopefully we’ll have him back in the lineup soon.”
Mats Zuccarello opened the shootout with a nifty little move, in which he came into the zone extremely slowly and then flipped a soft wrist shot over Jonathan Bernier’s glove. He had a good time describing it after the win.
“It’s from Oslo, Norway,” said the diminutive Norwegian winger. “I don’t really think much. To be honest, I can’t really tell you what’s going on. It just happens.”
The Rangers power play went 0-for-4 of 6:51 of man-advantage time, breaking a three-game streak in which it had scored at least once in each game.
Coming in, the unit had scored four times in its previous 13 opportunities, which was preceded by a four-game goal-less stretch, when it went 0–for-11.