The first two, they were fun. This one, it means something. In fact, it means a lot.
The significance of Sunday’s late-afternoon matinee between the Rangers and Islanders at the Garden is more than just pride for these newly urban rivals. The first two victories for the Islanders this season at their new Barclays Center home were nice little tidbits in their Brooklyn narrative. But now that the NHL’s trade deadline came and went Monday, things suddenly have gotten very serious.
One need look no further than the Rangers’ 3-2 win over the league-leading Capitals on Friday night. If that game didn’t feel like a playoff game, then none have this season.
“It was one of those games that was competitive and hungry,” the Rangers’ newest addition, Eric Staal, said Friday night, his team getting Saturday off for some much-needed rest. “It was fun to be a part of.”
Incorporating Staal into coach Alain Vigneault’s lineup still is one of the team’s biggest concerns, even if Staal played the best of his three games in the Broadway Blueshirt against the Capitals in that hostile and difficult environment.
“I’m getting more comfortable every shift, every game out there,” Staal said. “I’m trying to play to my strengths and compete.”
Yet the Blueshirts have one significantly bigger issue, and that’s the health of starting goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Suffering from neck spasms as a result of a hit from his own defenseman, Ryan McDonagh, during Thursday’s frustrating 4-1 loss in Pittsburgh, Lundqvist was unable to back up in Washington.
Goalie Magnus Hellberg, who was an emergency recall from AHL Hartford on Friday morning to back up behind Antti Raanta, was returned to AHL Hartford on Saturday, yet that hardly means anything definitive for Lundqvist. The franchise net-minder was supposed to have his neck re-evaluated Saturday, but the Rangers had no update on his status, and his availability for Sunday remains up in the air.The option of recalling Hellberg to back up again certainly is possible.
The Rangers still carry an 11-3-1 record in the past 15 games into this one and hold a five-point advantage over the Islanders for second place in the Metropolitan Division. The Islanders, with three games in hand, are coming off a 5-1-0 road trip, which started in Newark and ran through the inferior Canadian West with just one hiccup in Edmonton.
So both teams are rounding into form at a good time.
The Blueshirts are hoping Staal can be the one piece to put them over the edge this season — the same hope they have had with trade-deadline acquisitions over the past two seasons. They have gone to three of the past four conference finals with still just one Cup since 1940 to show for it. They are full-bore with this core group of players for one last run, yet Staal hasn’t exactly shown himself to be the missing piece just yet.
It certainly is unfair to start the evaluation process for a player who spent the first 12 years of his career with the Hurricanes, but it has begun nonetheless. Maybe when winger Rick Nash returns from his prolonged absence due to a severe bone bruise in his left leg sometime in the next two weeks, Staal might find a proper running mate. As of now, the acclamation process for Staal continues, no matter how rocky.
“We rolled four lines tonight,” was all Vigneault could say when asked about Staal after his team’s emphatic win over the Capitals, when a couple players also were sluggish because of flu-like symptoms circulating around the room. “We needed everybody on back-to-back situations, and that’s what we got.”
Staal has had some help absorbing the spotlight, watching as center Derek Stepan picked up his game, along with some vintage performances from the prideful Rangers backend — including McDonagh, Dan Girardi and last year’s late addition, Keith Yandle.
Staal’s younger brother and new teammate, Marc, was hurting from the illness, having missed Thursday’s game in Pittsburgh, but he gutted out the game in Washington, just as the Rangers did in a nail-biting defensive performance, this time in front of their backup goalie.
“Big win by the guys,” Eric Staal said, “and another big [game] on Sunday.”
With the Islanders rolling onto Broadway, Eric Staal better get used to these types of games. They only get bigger from here.
