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Staal dealing with post-concussion symptoms |
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Larry Brooks reported today that Marc Staal is recovering from apparent post-concussion symptoms that sidelined him for the Rangers’ games against Philadelphia and Columbus prior to this bye week. It's not 100% clear if the injury that sidelined him occurred in the January 3 game against Buffalo, but it was after that contest that he reported he was not feeling well. When I heard the term "upper body injury" with Staal, my immediate concern, given his history, that it was a concussion. Unfortunately that has proven to be the case here.
Due to Staal's history and his indication that he didn't feel well, I am bit surprised that he hasn't gone through the NHL concussion protocol after he was help out of those games. With this news, I would expect he goes through the protocol before he is cleared to play or even practice tomorrow at 4pm, when the bye-week period ends.
If Staal doesn't practice tomorrow, it's fairly unlikely that he plays Friday’s against the Maple Leafs at the Garden or Saturday’s match in Montreal. If Staal is sidelined, Adam Clendening, who replaced him before the break, will fill in for him again and that also means that Kevin Klein and Dan Girardi will be in the lineup as well.
Brooks adds that Staal, who turns 30 on Friday, missed the first 36 games of the 2011-12 season with symptoms that developed in the aftermath of that infamous check from his brother, Eric, in Carolina on Feb. 22, 2011. In addition, Staal suffered a concussion in December 2013 and missed 10 games after taking a headshot from the Devils’ Reid Boucher. Between those incidents, No. 18 missed the final 27 games of the 2012-13 season (and all but one playoff match) with an eye injury he sustained when struck by a shot on March 5, 2012. Since returning from that second concussion, however, Staal had played in 197 of the Blueshirts’ 202 games — and all 49 playoff matches — until this.
The good news, if there is any, is that it's been three years since his last concussion. The bad news is that concussion symptoms and their after effects are cumulative. Hopefully the space between the two concussions aids the healing process and this one is mild. New York, due to tat aforementioned concussion history, has to be smart in handling Staal. Let him sit out as long as he needs to make sure he is 100%.
Staal, who is on the books for four more years at $5.7 mil per after this season, had a season to forget last year, adversely impacted by nagging injuries. The hope was that the extended off-season due to the first round playoff loss would be the cure for all his ills and he would return to the level of play we had the prior two seasons. So far, that has been the case, and the Staal-Nick Holden duo has been the team's best pairing. When Staal first was sidelined here, as said above my first thought was please no concussion and second was to Michael Sauer, whose career was ruined by a concussion following a Dion Phaneuf hit. Hopefully Staal is back soon, and he is sidelined longer than expected, add another hope to fill and need to GM Jeff Gorton's list.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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