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When Marc Staal left
the Rangers bench last night and headed for the locker room with trainer Jim
Ramsay every fan of this franchise held their
collective breath and was praying for it to be something minor. The initial assumption was that the injury to
Marc had something to do with his brother Eric flattening him with a hit late
in the second period and seeing on the replay how his head smacked off the ice
and there was a whiplash type effect on his neck. After the game, coach John Tortorella said
that the injury was in fact a tweak to his knee that was sustained on the first
shift of the game and got progressively worse as time went on. We do not yet know the severity of the
injury, but the coach did not believe it to be serious.
The level of reaction
to the injury and fear over what it might be made me think about a question I
had asked earlier in the year about which New York Ranger player is the most
irreplaceable for what they bring to the team.
Unfortunately for the Rangers nearly all of the guys one would think of
to fit in that category have been injured at different parts of the year for
different amounts of time. The team has
been able to withstand those injuries to be in the position they are
today. For me the debate about which
player is the most irreplaceable truly comes down to two options: Henrik
Lundqvist and Marc Staal.
As great as Henrik
Lundqvist is, and he is the backbone of the hockey club, Marc Staal is the most
irreplaceable New York Ranger. I do not
look at that statement as a slight on Henrik Lundqvist in the least because it
is not a comparison of who is a better player, but a statement as to the level
of importance that Marc Staal has built for himself this season with this team.
Every night Staal is
asked to shut down the best player on the opposition and he has done that an
All-Star caliber level with a level of consistency that has moved him into the
elite level of defenders in the NHL. In
addition to those responsibilities both at even strength and while killing
penalties, Staal has seen a significant increase in his role on the power play,
which all combined has seen his minutes jump to nearly 26 per game and upwards
of 30 on many nights. Where do you find
a player to replace a number 1 defender that plays those minutes and in all
situations?
If Staal leaves the lineup
there comes a natural reordering of the Rangers defensive core and what has
been a strength suddenly starts to look relatively weak. The first domino that would come is rookie
Ryan McDonagh being forced move up to now play against top line opponents
instead of second line forwards. The
increase in the level of competition and additional minutes are things that
McDonagh has shown he can likely handled with his play thus far, but what
happens behind him leaves much to be desired.
Based on the recent minute distribution the coaching staff has little
faith in Michael Del Zotto, Matt Gilroy or Steve Eminger to play significant
minutes right now and especially against higher quality competition.
If Staal is out and
McDonagh elevated it would force the elevation of a struggling Del Zotto, or Matt
Gilroy from the third to the second pairing or possibly Steve Eminger, a player
who has been a healthy scratch for 10 of the last 11 games would have to
suddenly play in the Rangers top four on defense. The difference in the quality of the Rangers
top four of Staal, Girardi, McDonagh, Sauer as opposed to McDonagh, Girardi, Sauer,
Del Zotto/Gilroy/Eminger is significant, especially on the defensive side. With the coaches lack of faith in bottom
three options it is tough to imagine any level of comfort that would be found
in having to elevate one of these three to a more important position.
Compare that scenario
to the situation in goal where the change would be from All-Star Henrik
Lundqvist to quality backup Martin Biron and the drop-off does not seem as
drastic in net. It is absolutely true
that on any given night Lundqvist is capable of stealing a game for the
Rangers, but Biron has kept the Rangers in nearly every game he has started
this season and given the team a chance to win.
His quality in his role has given the team and the coaching staff full
faith in him to step in if necessary for Lundqvist, which is more than some of
the defense has done in the case of a Staal injury.
The combination of
what Staal brings, the drop off when alterations have to be made to the Rangers
defensive core and how well Biron has played add up to make Marc Staal not
necessarily the better New York Ranger, but the more irreplaceable one. Hopefully, with that in mind, the reports on Staal will be good over the next few days and he will be right back in there on Friday night against Ovechkin and the Capitals.
