So it seems as if the Rangers are approaching Monday night’s game at the Garden against the Ducks as a grudge match following the 6-0 beating they absorbed in Anaheim on Oct. 10, and they will do so with Ryan Callahan in the lineup.
“I’m 100 percent,” said Callahan, who had been sidelined for seven games with the broken left thumb he sustained blocking a shot in Washington on Oct. 16. “The last few days of skating and shooting went well, so I’m good to go.”
Callahan, who previously had missed the first game of the season while he was rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery, was cleared to play on Sunday following an exam and meeting with club doctors and medical trainer Jim Ramsay.
“He’s the captain of this team, he’s an emotional player and he brings a physical dimension,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “With what he does from an emotional level, I’m really happy to have him back.”
The defeat to the Ducks, in which the Rangers trailed 5-0 by 8:11 of the second and 6-0 at the end of two, came 48 hours after the Blueshirts had been slaughtered 9-2 by the Sharks in San Jose.
When Vigneault was asked what he remembers about the mismatch, the coach didn’t refer to the chaotic Blueshirts performance, but rather cited a move by Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau that he clearly resented.
“It was 6-0 with six minutes left, we took a penalty and they put their top power-play unit on the ice,” Vigneault said, referring to Boudreau’s decision to go with Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Friends when Mats Zuccarello went off for roughing at 13:21 of the third period.
The coach then said he was “not concerned with how the other team utilizes their personnel,” but if that’s the case, why raise the issue?
Boudreau, whose team is third overall in the NHL at 11-3-1, dismissed Vigneault’s implied charge that he was seeking to run up the score in Anaheim.
“Has he seen our power-play record?” Boudreau asked rhetorically. “I don’t think we’d scored a power-play goal the whole year, or maybe one, so they were out for about 40 seconds before we put the fourth line on.
“We needed to get [the first unit] a little work. They didn’t do anything. He should be happy they were out there.”
Brad Richards did not speak directly to that scenario, but the alternate captain said: “We remember that night.”
“We’re a lot different than we were then,” said Richards, whose club has won three straight to improve to 6-7. “You can pretty much describe the game of hockey and we’re better from our goal line to their goal line.
“That game was a mess after coming off a game before that was real messy. We were all over the place,” he said. “Now we’re a different group.”
Now they’re a group with Callahan and Carl Hagelin both in the lineup for the first time. Only Rick Nash, who has been out with a concussion since Oct. 8, remains on the sidelines.
“You get guys back and it has a trickle-down effect,” Richards said. “Players go into the roles they’re best suited for.”
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J.T. Miller, who was demoted to the fourth line during Saturday’s 5-1 victory over the Hurricanes, will likely be scratched to accommodate Callahan’s return.
“He basically had a tough game against Carolina,” Vigneault said. “His decisions with and without the puck dropped him [in the rotation] in that game.”
Miller, lectured on the ice by Henrik Lundqvist following a coverage blunder eight minutes into the third period of that one, declined to speak following the morning skate when asked about his status.