AV: Staal will decide his return
TORONTO — The All-Star break is three games and less than week away, but if Marc Staal is symptom-free and well enough to go before this final scheduled hiatus of the season, then go he will into the Rangers lineup. That is the word, according to Alain Vigneault.
“As soon as he tells me he’s good to go, he’s going to play,” the coach said before the Rangers’ 5-2 victory over the Maple Leafs on Thursday night. “With what Marc brings to the team, I’m going to put him in as soon as he’s healthy.”
Staal, who has missed six straight games dealing with the aftereffects of the concussion he apparently sustained in the Jan. 3 defeat at the Garden to the Sabres, skated at the club’s practice rink on Wednesday and Thursday. It is not known whether he might be cleared for Saturday’s full practice.
This is the third recorded concussion of Staal’s career.
Staal had been paired primarily with Nick Holden on the Blueshirts’ second pair and plays an integral part in the club’s penalty killing. The Blueshirts had gone 2-3 while allowing 22 goals through the first five games of Staal’s current absence, including five on the penalty kill.
Vigneault said he expects Matt Puempel, the team’s other convalescing concussion victim, to participate in Saturday’s practice. The winger, concussed twice in December, has missed seven straight games recovering from this one, which he sustained at Colorado on Dec. 31.
Puempel previously was sidelined for four games after taking a Brock Nelson blow to the head at Barclays Center on Dec. 6.
Chris Kreider’s goaltender interference penalty Tuesday for bowling over the Stars’ Antti Niemi was his third of the year, tying him with the Capitals’ Justin Williams for the NHL lead in that category.
The Rangers, who snapped a threegame losing streak, have not lost four straight of any kind since December 2013 when they went 0-3-1 and have not lost four straight in regulation since dropping four in a row in February of 2011 to cap an 0-5-1 skid.
Jimmy Vesey, who got 6:18 and 8:39 of ice in the previous two games against the Stars and Canadiens, played 6:57 through the first two periods on the fourth line with Oscar Lindberg and Brandon Pirri before finishing with 10:59.