Larry Brooks is providing player evaluations daily in the NY Post, an exercise that began the past Monday. The order is by last name, and while he is not giving a grade, he is giving a sort of high-level assessment. Since it's my hope that we will have hockey, I thought it might be interesting to take one or a few aspects of his daily column along with his closure - the latter in italics - and provide my view, then receive yours in the comments. I will try and do this daily, and have covered Lias Andersson, Pavel Buchnevich, Filip Chytil, Tony DeAngelo, Jesper Fast, Adam Fox, Alexandar Georgiev, Brett Howden, Kaapo Kakko and Chris Kreider, Brendan Lemieux, Ryan Lindgren, Henrik Lundqvist, Greg McKegg, Artemi Panarin, Igor Shesterkin and Brendan Smith. This column, it's Marc Staal.
Staal
You could start with perhaps the most baffling incident on the ice that I’ve ever seen, which would be Eric Staal’s crushing hit up high that concussed his brother, Marc Staal, in Carolina on Feb. 22, 2011.
Or maybe with the calamity at the Garden on March 5, 2013, when Marc was struck in the right eye on Jakub Voracek’s deflection of Kimmo Timonen’s shot and lost the vision in that eye.
Because those are the two defining moments of Staal’s career in New York that began with the 2007-08 season. Now that Zak DeOssie’s tenure with the Giants has ended, Staal is second in longevity among professional athletes in this town, with only Henrik Lundqvist (2005-06) exceeding his seniority.
But rather than point to that pair of signal moments that altered the course of Staal’s career, let’s go back to this past Oct. 29 when the Rangers were at the Garden against the Lightning and No. 18 was designated as a healthy scratch by David Quinn to make room for Ryan Lindgren’s addition to the lineup.
Was designated as a healthy scratch for the first time in his career.
Staal didn’t like it. Not even a tiny bit. And he liked it less when he was scratched the next game, too, at Nashville on Nov. 2. And a whole lot less than that when he sat for a third straight time against Ottawa on Nov. 4. He was angry.
And he played like it after he was reinstated for the following game against the Red Wings on Nov. 6. There was another enforced break soon after that cost Staal 13 games when he underwent ankle surgery after having developed an infection. But when he returned on Dec. 6, he reclaimed his job and never looked back or over his shoulder.
The coach had laid down a challenge. Be better. And that is exactly what a reinvigorated Marc Staal was after accepting that challenge. He was strong in the corners, effective in the one-on-one’s, better in his positioning and with his work in front than he’d been in a couple of years.
He brought a large measure of stability to the back end. And his strong work allowed the team to return Libor Hajek to Hartford to continue his apprenticeship after the NHL became just a bit too much for the 22-year-old
His steadiness on the left allowed his partner, Tony DeAngelo, to offensively thrive on the right side. And No. 18 provided a reminder of who is he and what he has meant to the Rangers on the ice and as a leader in the room. Only five men have played more games in the Blueshirt than Staal’s 892, and they are Harry Howell, Brian Leetch, Rod Gilbert, Ron Greschner and Walter Tkaczuk.
The trajectory of the 33-year-old Staal’s career was forever altered by the eye injury and the concussion-inducing hit in Carolina. The Rangers moved up from No. 16 to 12 to grab him in the 2005 ping-pong ball lottery draft that followed the canceled season. The Blueshirts, Penguins, Sabres and Blue Jackets all had the same shot at the first overall selection who would be Sidney Crosby. The Rangers wound up with the 16th-overall pick. Don’t ask me. When the financially failing Penguins emerged with the prize, the ghost of Dave DeBusschere nodded knowingly.
But the Blueshirts dealt their first and second to the Thrashers in order to move up and grab Staal, who was a two-way guy with power play ability. In 2010-11, in fact, he got 2:38 per on the PP playing for John Tortorella. He may not have gotten a total of 2:38 since, evolving into a stay-at-home guy who was never shy about laying the lumber on Crosby in the running series of playoff confrontations between the teams.
As the league became speedier by the day, Staal did not. As defensemen have become more mobile by the month, Staal has not. He’s a dinosaur in this league. A Tyrannosaurus Rex who proved this season that he is by no means on the verge of extinction
For those who don't remember Staal pre-injuries, he was on the ascension to be one of the better blueliners in the leagues. Not the fastest or most physical or possessing the greatest offensive skills, but a solid blend of each. Then the injuries him, wreaking havoc to his career, though, unlike Michael Sauer, fortunately, he was able to recover from his concussion.
Before the season, if you asked most Rangers' fans which d-man they wanted voted off New York Island, the majority would have said Staal. That may still be the case, but for those with that view, I foster the opinion, which mirrors what Brooks wrote, that you clearly then didn't watch his play.
Staal rebounded from the benching to have a very solid campaign. in fact, and I believe this was the case as well last season, he was one of the team's better blueliners. Not at the level of ADA or Fox, but next in class and show. He was physical, aggressive when needed and used his stick check, which was a hallmark of his in the halcyon days, very effectively.
With a buyout available, Staal is not out of the woods. That applies even if the NHL enacts an amnesty buyout. If an amnesty buyout occurs, regardless of if you can use it to buy out a current player or wipe off dead cap space, Staal likely will still remain a Ranger, but you could see New York buying Henrik Lundqvist with no cap hit and then turning the focus on Staal or Brendan Smith.
In my view, keeping Staal in general and on a pair with ADA makes a ton of sense. He showed there is still a decent amount of gas in the tank. Plus his playoff experience would be invaluable when the team makes the postseason dance again.
Brooks on impediments to restarting the season. So many great points in this column. We all want hockey and sports back, but are you willing to see action resume while the rest of the country is still in a form of shelter-in-place? As Brooks asked, are you okay with all those involved in play resuming getting tested while others cannot. What about 3-5K remaining in a bubble separated from families so that games can start up once again?
While I would to see live sports, I think - as Brooks pointed out - the impediments right now are too great. Maybe as we start to regain some sense of normalcy, if the players and all those that would be required to have game action are "first in line," that might be passable. But that still appears to be a ways off at best.
As a reminder, I will be out of pocket starting Tuesday night through Thursday night due to the last two days of Passover. If i can pre-write my thoughts on Brooks' players blogs, I will give them in to a hockey buzz admin to post while I am. I don't expect to miss much given the current situation, but will resume the blogs when i return if unable to prewrite the blogs for submission.
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