NOT DONE YET
Rangers' Shattenkirk aims to retur this year, if 100 percent healthy
This is not the same for the Rangers and Kevin Shattenkirk as it was at the beginning of the season. The expectations for an eighth straight playoff berth have now all but vanished, and Shattenkirk’s first year on Broadway already has been defined by injury and disappointment.
So the talented righty defenseman is not rushing back from the left-knee surgery that has sidelined him since Jan. 18, not like he fought through the torn meniscus he suffered in training camp and played through during the first three-plus months of the season. But he is still very much focused on returning before the regular season ends on April 7, though he suffered a setback in his rehab that kept him off the ice for a week.
“I think for me on an individual level, it gives me something to push for, it gives me a goal throughout this rehab process,” Shattenkirk told The Post after he was a full participant in Friday’s practice in Westchester. “I think that’s important to not just mail it in, and then you’re looking at five months until your next game. This is something where I’ve told the coaches and the training staff here, I’m not going to go out there if my knee is putting me at risk in any way.
“If I feel 100 percent, you can’t just protect me from getting injured. That’s hockey, that’s life. If it’s one game, if it’s five games, so be it.”
Shattenkirk said he hopes to put his knee to the test by next Wednesday, when the Rangers are in Washington taking on his quick fling from last season, the Capitals. He described one of the final tests as going onto the ice with a coach and getting himself “run into the ground a little bit.” If Shattenkirk can pass it by next Wednesday, he might make it back with five games remaining in the regular season.
It just so happens that part of the process is what made his knee swell up two weeks ago, showing he wasn’t ready to return and giving him another week of rest.
“Those are the steps you have to take to know if you’re ready for the game,” Shattenkirk said. “So until you really fatigue it and put it through a hard, rigorous workout, that’s when you know if you’re ready to go or not.”
Shattenkirk didn’t pass that test last time, though he said he didn’t do any further damage.
“It wasn’t expected because as we were going through everything, it was responding well,” he said. “When it happened, it was one of those things where they said it’s not anything we need to worry about.”
The 29-year-old Shattenkirk signed a four-year, $26.6 million deal with the Rangers this summer, giving up some terms he could have demanded as an unrestricted free agent to play for the team he grew up rooting for as a kid in New Rochelle. The hype was everywhere for him when the season started, and he pushed himself to play through the injury that wouldn’t allow his full talents to be utilized — and it didn’t help when the Rangers went through dramatic highs and lows in terms of winning and losing.
But he finally decided to have the surgery on Jan. 22, and Friday’s practice was just about as good as coach Alain Vigneault has seen Shattenkirk in a long time.
“For me, this is the best he’s looked,” Vigneault said. “He skated strong [Friday] and he skated powerful on the ice. So hopefully the knee continues to react in a positive way. A coupe more good, hard skates and we’ll see how we do moving forward.”
The disappointment in Shattenkirk’s play was one of the defining characteristics of this Rangers season, when management has enacted a full rebuild in hopes of fortifying for the future. But he still has three more years left at an annual salarycap hit of $6.65 million, so the hope is that any game action can be a springboard for a good summer of working out for him that goes right into a good training camp.
“When Shatty is on top of his game, he’s a good player,” Vigneault said. “And I think we both agree, even if it’s just one game, it would be good for him to get back for his mindset, and he feels the same way.”