Tonight, for the first time this season, a Staal brother will be on the Garden ice.
But it will be Eric, the concussing captain of the Hurricanes and not Marc, the concussed alternate captain of the Rangers, who has been sidelined all year in the aftermath of the unbrotherly blow he sustained in Carolina on Feb. 22 of last season.
A news blackout has been imposed regarding Marc’s condition, but The Post has learned the 24-year-old defenseman will be examined next week in Boston by concussion specialist Dr. Robert Cantu.
The examination, sources have told The Post, will follow a one-month “shutdown” period ordered by Cantu when Staal visited him during the week of Oct. 16 while the Rangers were in western Canada.
The Rangers at that point were optimistic Staal, who had previously undergone repeated acupuncture in Toronto and had received a cortisone shot in the neck from physicians at the University of Buffalo on Sept. 26 as treatment for the intermittent headaches he had been experiencing since at least late summer, would be cleared to resume skating after being off the ice for a couple of weeks.
Cantu, however, went in the opposite direction, mandating Staal cease all physical activity for a month. For the last three weeks, the defenseman has been resting at his apartment in Manhattan.
That’s where older brother, Eric, who leveled his younger brother with a mean, high, albeit not penalized hit at 19:10 of the second period of that fateful game in Raleigh, visited Marc this week after the Hurricanes played in New Jersey on Tuesday.
Eric, a perennial All-Star who is off to a dreadful start for the 5-7-3 Hurricanes (three goals and two assists with a by-far-league-worst -16 rating), told NHL.com in New Jersey, “If I could take it back, I probably wouldn’t have hit him, knowing where we’ve gone and what has gone on since then, [but] it was one of those plays, bang-bang, happens so quickly, and I hit him hard.”
Under ordinary circumstances, the 8-3-3 Rangers — who have won five straight — would be expected to attempt to extract payback from the Carolina captain in this first meeting of the clubs since that night.
But these are anything but ordinary circumstances. Really, would Marc want the Rangers to seek vengeance against his brother?
“We’re missing one of our best players because of that hit, whether the hit was very dirty or not,” Brandon Prust told The Post following yesterday’s practice. “But with it being between brothers, it’s definitely a unique circumstance.
“We’re obviously going to go out and play a hard, physical game, and we’ll certainly finish our checks against Eric, but we can’t afford to lose our heads and take any stupid penalties over this.
“I hope maybe sometime over the summer when Eric was sleeping, Marc found the way to get some payback.”
* Brandon Dubinsky enters tonight with a season-long, 14-game scoreless streak that represents the fourth-longest drought of his career.
“It’s tough mentally, but I just try to focus on contributing other ways,” said Dubinsky, who has six assists and an even rating. “It’s not like I’m on for a lot of goals against or that my game is completely in the toilet.”
* Anton Stralman practiced for the first time with the club since signing as a free agent on Saturday.
“I have to watch him further before I even attempt to have a conversation about him,” coach John Tortorella said.