NHL

Dubinsky, Callahan have busy night in Rangers return

John Tortorella didn’t take it easy on Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan in their first game back last night.

“They’re a big part of our team,” the Rangers coach said after a 4-3 shootout loss to the Penguins. “I’m not sure what their minutes were, but we certainly didn’t hesitate to put them on the ice.”

No, he didn’t. Dubinsky, who had an assist, finished with a 23:10 of ice time — a team-high among forwards — after missing five games with a stress fracture in his left fibula. Callahan, who tied the game with a power-play goal with 12.5 seconds remaining in the second period, finished with 21:07 after missing 19 games with a broken finger that he injured, coincidentally, against Pittsburgh on Dec. 15.

“I felt good,” Dubinsky said. “I felt strong. I had a long one yesterday, and today I felt good when I got up, and was ready to go.

“It was just a pain tolerance thing, and right now I’m not in any pain, so it’s good.”

Said Callahan: “I felt pretty good out there. First shift, I was just trying to get my feet under me a little bit, trying to get my legs going. But overall, my conditioning felt good. I wanted to come out there tonight and create some energy and play my game, stay within myself, and I think I did that and I was happy with my game.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t come up with that extra point.”

Defenseman Dan Girardi also made his return to the lineup after missing two games, and finished second only to Marc Staal in ice time, finishing with 26:08. He also was credited with three hits.

*

Before last night’s game, Tortorella said that Sean Avery‘s demotion to the fourth line was simply because of the numbers problem that was created by Dubinsky and Callahan returning to the lineup, with Vinny Prospal also expected to make his season debut tomorrow.

Tortorella said he would try to mix Avery in, but his minutes took a hit last night. He finished the game with 9:32 of ice time, ahead of only linemates Chris Drury and Kris Newbury.

*

With Girardi back in the lineup, Tortorella had seven healthy defensemen. Instead of sitting Michael Del Zotto, as it was expected he would, Tortorella chose instead to play Del Zotto over Steve Eminger.

Del Zotto, who had an assist on Callahan’s game-tying power play goal, finished with 18:38 of ice time and was a -1.

*

Wojtek Wolski had an assist last night, pushing his point total to eight (three goals, five assists) in 10 games with the Rangers. . . . To make room for Dubinsky, the Rangers sent Evgeny Grachev to Connecticut before last night’s game.