Marc Staal said that there is “no comparison” between the concussion he suffered on Dec. 7 and the one he sustained in February of 2011 that ultimately sidelined him for the first 36 games of the 2011-12 season.
“The last time, I played through a concussion for so long, the effects dragged on forever,” the Rangers’ alternate captain said Sunday morning. “This one is different.
“From day-to-day afterward, I’ve felt better, quicker. There is no comparison.”
Staal, symptom-free for at least the last several days, spoke in his team’s locker room at the practice facility before skating for the second straight day.
The Rangers-Wild match at the Garden Sunday night will mark his seventh straight game out of the lineup since he left the ice immediately after taking a hit up high from the Devils’ Reid Boucher midway through the third period of the Dec. 7, 4-3 OT defeat at the Garden.
“I had loud ringing in my ears and a headache right after, so I knew something was wrong,” Staal said. “Having come back too early the last time, I knew [the risks].
“If I hadn’t had that [prior experience] I might have gone back out, but now I’m a little more educated, so I stayed off.”
That time, Staal missed three games in the immediate aftermath of the Feb. 22 blow he took from his brother, Eric, in Raleigh, and then missed two more approximately a month later, but then played the final eight games of the regular-season and all five games of his club’s first-round playoff defeat to the Caps.
When Staal went out after sustaining that concussion, it marked the first game he had ever missed because of injury in his NHL career that began in 2007-08.
But he missed those five games at the back end of the 2010-11, the first 36 games of 2011-12, and then missed all but one of the Blueshirts’ final 39 games last season (including the playoffs) with a serious right eye injury he sustained on Mar. 5 when he was struck in the face by a deflected shot.
“When I hit the ice [after the Boucher check], it was a lot of, well, not disbelief, but there was frustration and anger,” said Staal. “When you play the game, you know bad things and injuries can happen, but this has just been a tough stretch for me.”
There is no timetable for Staal’s return. The defenseman, who is still in the picture for a spot on Canada’s Olympic Team, said the plan is to steadily increase his workload while continuing to monitor his progress. He likely will skate while the league is off for the collectively-bargained and mandated three-day, Dec. 24-26 Christmas break.
“You never really know until you go full tempo,” he said. “I try and look at the positives and if it goes well [on Sunday], then I’ll go out again [Monday] and then go from there. After starting up like this, it would be tough to shut it down for three days.
“There have been ups-and-downs, but the last few days have been good.”
(Three-star)
Coach Alain Vigneault confirmed that Cam Talbot will be in nets against the Wild. It will be the 26-year-old’s first start since Dec. 2, with Henrik Lundqvist having started the last eight, including all seven on the homestand in which the Blueshirts are 1-4-2.
“We’ve had a lot of games, there’s a back-to-back [against the Maple Leafs at the Garden on Monday],” the coach said. “I want Cam to go [on Sunday].”