PHILADELPHIA — This is where 2011-12 began for Marc Staal, on Jan. 2 on the outdoor rink at the ballpark across the parking lot from where the Rangers this afternoon will attempt to go 5-0 against the Flyers this season.
It hasn’t been a smooth ride for Staal, who missed the season’s first 36 games with post-concussion issues arising from the blow he took last Feb. 22 in Carolina from his brother Eric. But the Rangers alternate captain said he believes he’s making progress, even if it’s the slow and steady kind.
“I have high expectations of myself under any circumstance, and I want to be able to contribute to the success of a first-place team the way I know I’m capable of doing, but it’s not quite there yet,” Staal told The Post following yesterday’s practice. “Once I got through the first handful of games without any negative consequences, I turned all my focus to my game, but it’s been choppy for me.”
The Rangers will dress seven defensemen this afternoon, opting not to recall a forward in place of Ruslan Fedotenko, who will miss at least this match after taking a blow to the head from Dominic Moore at 3:05 of the third period of Thursday’s 4-3 overtime Garden victory over the Lightning.
Moore was fined $2,500 by the NHL yesterday.
Rangers coach John Tortorella did not reveal whether Fedotenko had been concussed on the play that drew just a two-minute minor, but did say the winger “didn’t feel right on the bike.”
“I’m not sure how serious it is,” said the coach, who obviously had no great enthusiasm for bringing Wojtek Wolski back from his conditioning assignment with the AHL Whale and inserting him into this intense, physical matchup, and who also likely wants protection in numbers on the back end in case a pugilistic defenseman such as Stu Bickel winds up in the box for extended periods of time.
Staal is averaging 18:01 per over the 16 games he has played, but 19:11 in his past 13. That’s still a considerable drop from the 25:44 that the 25-year-old logged last year in leading the club in ice time and his lowest average since he got 18:48 per as rookie in 2007-08.
“I think I can do a better job of getting into the flow of the game at a high-intensity level on every shift,” Staal said. “I’m used to playing big minutes where I’m jumping over the boards just about every other shift, whereas now I’m on the bench a bit more, which gives me more time to think, and that’s not always good.
“But I think I’m getting more used to it and have been doing a better job dealing with it. I believe the best is in front of me.”
While acknowledging the adjustment Staal is confronting, Tortorella said he is not planning to immediately add to the defenseman’s workload in order to prepare him for additional responsibility down the road.
“We know how important Marc is, but he’s getting [around] 20 minutes and I don’t want to have to start juggling everything else to force him into different spots,” Tortorella said. “He still needs work in certain situations, like in digging the puck out with the stick and getting quick shots through, but he’s definitely getting much better.
“He’s coming.”