VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It appears as if it will be one-and-done for Dan Carcillo as the left wing with Derek Stepan and Rick Nash, for at practice Monday, Alain Vigneault moved Carl Hagelin into the spot on the flank that had been occupied by Chris Kreider before the winger’s season-ending left hand injury.
“I’m going to sleep on it, but it’s 78-to-80 percent that I’ll go that way,” Vigneault joked in advance of the Blueshirts’ contest against the Canucks Tuesday. “Putting Hags there gives us the same kind of speed we had with Kreids.”
The Benoit Pouliot-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello line that was outstanding in Sunday’s 5-0 rout of the downtrodden Oilers — with Pouliot perhaps the most formidable Ranger forward even as Zuccarello and Nash each scored twice — remained intact.
Dominic Moore took shifts skating between Brad Richards (on the left) and Marty St. Louis, though Richards also worked in the middle between St. Louis and Derek Dorsett. Brian Boyle took a number of turns in the middle between Carcillo and Derek Dorsett.
Vigneault, asked about St. Louis’ 14-game goal-scoring drought as a Ranger, joked he had turned the Art Ross Trophy winner “into a defensive specialist.”
The coach said John Moore, sidelined since sustaining a concussion in Columbus March 21, would need one more practice, and then it would be “a coach’s decision” whether he rejoins the lineup for Thursday’s match in Colorado.
Canucks coach John Tortorella cited the three-hour time difference in saying he has not paid much attention to the Rangers. “I’m not going to lie to you, when you leave a team you’ve been with for five years, sure you look about some guys, but with the East/West thing you kind of block it out.”
Tortorella, however, did offer an opinion when asked if the Rangers’ trade of Ryan Callahan had surprised him from afar.
“It does, yeah, he was my captain. We spent a lot of time together,” Tortorella said. “I saw him when we played in Tampa and the uni didn’t look right.
“I give [the Rangers] a tremendous amount of credit, that’s a big hole to fill with what he brings, not only on the ice but in the room too, but they still found their way, with Marty [St. Louis] struggling. It was different when I saw him in a Tampa uniform. It struck me funny.”