Marc Staal, the Rangers’ stalwart blueliner and one of their alternate captains, will not be in the lineup tonight when the team plays its first preseason game against the Devils in Albany. But the Rangers are hoping he will be back in two weeks when the games count.
Staal, 24, — who is entering his fifth year with the Rangers, and who makes up half of the Rangers’ top defensive pair with Dan Girardi — suffered a concussion after being hit by his older brother Eric on Feb. 22. He still is feeling the effects of the concussion, and the Rangers have been treading on the side of caution.
Who can blame them? Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby suffered a concussion on Jan. 1 last season, and played just one game after that for the rest of the season, and might not be ready for the start of this season. The value Crosby has to the Penguins’ offense is similar to that of Staal on the Rangers’ defense, so rushing him back is clearly not in the team’s or his plans.
“Some days I’ll get a headache late in the day that’ll last 4-5 hours, or one hour,” Staal said yesterday after completing the drills and practice. “That’s just kind of the way its been going the last couple of weeks.
“It’s frustrating. It is something I have never had before, but I’ve been improving over the past two or three weeks.”
After showing up at the Rangers’ practice facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., on Monday, Staal was sent home after not feeling well. But yesterday, he gave it another shot, skating and taking part in non-contact drills in between the Rangers’ two scrimmage games.
“Those three days [training camp last Friday through Sunday] were pretty tough and I kind of came to the rink not feeling that great [Monday], so we decided to take the foot off the gas a little bit,” he said. “If I sit on the couch all day, I don’t get any headaches. If I push myself really hard, more times than not I’ll get a headache.”
Though Staal won’t play in tonight’s game, or any of the three preseason games the Rangers have in North America, he could return to the lineup when the Rangers’ season opens on Friday, Oct. 7, in Sweden. But only if the headaches are gone by then.
“Obviously it is not an ideal situation to jump into a regular season game, but at that point you don’t really have any other options,” Staal said. “As soon as I can get a stretch in where I’m not getting headaches, I’ll start playing games.”
Rangers coach John Tortorella said the decision is up to Staal to tell him when he is ready to play again.
“It’s just a very difficult injury, and it is so talked about, that you have to leave it up to the player,” Tortorella said. “He needs to communicate to you how he is doing.”
On the bright side, it gives the coaching staff a chance to look at some of the other defensemen who will be competing for a spot or two on the active roster.
“We’re going to keep on looking at guys, and that is a position that there are spots wide open,” Tortorella said. “So we’ll get some guys in situations to take a look at them in the exhibition games.”
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After practice ended yesterday, the Rangers announced their roster for tonight’s game.
The roster, which does not include many regulars, is as follows: forwards — Sean Avery, J.T. Miller, John Mitchell, Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, Dale Weise, Andre Deveaux, Erik Christensen, Christian Thomas, Ryan Bourque, Shane McColgan and Carl Hagelin; defense — Michael Del Zotto, Dan Girardi, Tim Erixon, Dylan McIlrath, Brendan Bell, Steve Eminger; goalies — Henrik Lundqvist and Cam Talbot.