The Rangers play Pittsburgh tonight in the front end of back-to-back road contests. Tomorrow, the Rangers are in Washington facing the division and conference leading Capitals. To compete the triumvirate of top divisional rivals, the Rangers take on the Isles at MSG on Sunday.
Many of the columns in the papers and online today centered - see what I did there - on where Eric Staal should play. This is a discussion we had last week when the rumors started in earnest about Staal coming to the Rangers. But it will be a conversation moving forward regardless of where Staal starts or ends a game.
Monday, Staal made his team debut centering Oscar Lindberg and Kevin Hayes on the third line in the team's 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets. But coach Alain Vigneault moved him after the second period to left wing alongside Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello. That change seemed to jumpstart the Rangers, especially Hayes, who was moved back to center, where he was more effective and comfortable. That change is right now a one period alteration, as Staal is back centering the third line but with Viktor Stalberg and Hayes for Thursday's game.
Jesper Fast, who was expected to miss tonight's game with the flu, will be in the lineup. Fast maybe used a mixture of Tamiflu and chicken soup to make a quicker than expected recovery. He will be on a line with JT Miller and Derek Brassard while Chris Kreider will be part of a trio with Derek Stepan and Mats Zuccarello. Given Kreider's comments in the paper, if we thought the trade rumors would bother him, I guess we just don't know CK20 as well as we thought. Because he pretty well dismissed them out of hand. With Stalberg up a line, Oscar Lindberg moves down to the fourth line with Dominic Moore and Tanner Glass.
The flu bug is clearly spreading, as Marc Staal will miss tonight's game with the flu. If I was being snarky, I would say he isn't playing because he had enough of playing with his brother, but that clearly is not the case. With Staal out, Dylan McIlrath is in. AV decided not to mess with the other two combinations, as McIlrath just replaces Staal with Marc Staal, keeping McD-G and Yandle-Klein together. Match ups will be key tonight as that third pairing can't get caught against Crosby and Malkin too often. I would say never but that won't happen, so the less exposure they have to both of those elite centers the better.
The good news from today is that Rick Nash skated for 15 minutes at CONSOL Energy Center on Thursday for the first time since February 2. Nash, out since January 22 with a bone bruise on his left leg, said afterward that he hoped to return in 10 to 14 days. That would have him in the lineup sometime during the team's three-game California road trip.
The original hope was that Nash would miss a few days. But the pain from the bone bruise lingered. Then when he skated Feb 2, he had to be shut down. An MRI exam after that skate revealed that the bone bruise was so severe it was acting like a fracture, which normally takes from four-to-eight weeks to heal. So, our thoughts that it was a fracture wasn't so far off, it just wasn't officially one.
The key now will be for Nash to have no setbacks and get his wind back. The acquisition of Eric Staal coupled with the team's better play of late means Nash doesn't have to be rushed back. Some non-contact skates, then practice followed by game action would be the plan. The question when Nash does return is where he plays.
Does AV put Nash where he has played a bunch in the past, to the left of Brassard and Zuccarello. It's possible that Nash gets reunited with Stepan and Kreider. where Nash played most of last season. One other option is the go big or go home line of Nash with Staal and Hayes. Hopefully, New York will be in a position where experimenting to find the right combination won't be superseded by the need to notch as many victories as possible to keep a playoff spot or seed.
The time off crystallized what's important for Nash.“The point where I’m at in my career, I want to win a championship,… Nash said. “If that means playing a different role than I’ve played before, then that might be it. It doesn’t matter to me where I fit in, as long as I’m part of the team and we’re winning.…
The three game gauntlet starts tonight in Pittsburgh. Get a win and head to Washington on a high note.
(Separately, here is the link to my trade recap podcast: http://primesportsnetwork.com/prime-sports-hockey-trade-deadline-podcast/)