Defenseman Marc Staal reaches milestone: 800 games with Rangers
GLENDALE, Ariz. – The night he reached the milestone, the Rangers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins and Henrik Lundqvist got pulled from the game. So Marc Staal appearing in his 800th game with the Rangers sort of got overshadowed. But a couple days later, when given the chance to reflect on it, the number meant something to the 12-year veteran, who turns 32 on Jan. 13.
“It’s a pretty cool milestone, obviously,’’ Staal said. “It’s something where you weren’t keeping track of it, and then you start hitting those numbers as you go. I think you just appreciate being in the game for that long, to be able to play that many games and to do what I love to do.’’
The 6-4, 213-pound defenseman, the Rangers’ first-round draft pick in 2005, became the 10th Rangers player to get to 800 games as a Blueshirt. Entering Sunday’s game against the Coyotes, he has played in 801 games, recording 41 goals and 133 assists for 174 points, with 402 penalty minutes.
This season, he is having something of a revival, having played in each of the first 40 games (he, and forwards Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider are the only ones to have done that) while scoring three goals and seven assists for 10 points. That is more points than he scored all of last season (1-7-8) and as much as he scored, in 72 games, two seasons ago.
“I feel like there’s more opportunity to find those holes this year, I think,’’ Staal said of his increased scoring. “I feel like I tried to do that last year and the same plays weren’t opening up, where they are this year. And guys are making plays – pulling up and finding late guys – something that I’ve been on the receiving end of a few nice plays. I feel like there’s more of that this year than the year before.’’
Partnering on the top defense pair with second-year player Neal Pionk, Staal has been a stalwart for the Rangers, and first-year coach David Quinn.
“For me, he’s been unbelievable,’’ Quinn said. “I think he’s had a really good year on the ice, but boy, he’s a guy you really enjoy to coach. You enjoy your interaction with him; he’s a stabilizing force in the locker room. He’s a guy that’s not very loud, but when he speaks, people listen. And we’ve been lucky to have him.’’
“He brings a leadership, and I think it’s an incredible accomplishment,’’ said Pionk of Staal and his 800 games. “I think every single guy on the team respects him and looks up to him.’’
Five-forward PP unit on hold, for now
When Kevin Hayes was forced out of the lineup Friday against the Colorado Avalanche because of an upper body-injury, that put an end, at least for one game, to the Rangers’ five-forward power play unit.
Quinn, who said he occasionally used a five-forward power play when he coached Boston University, initially deployed the five-forward unit with the Rangers in a game at Toronto on Dec. 22. He did it, he said, because he was trying to get his best five players on the power play. But the next night, after a frustrating loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the final game before the Christmas break, Quinn talked about blowing it up. “Kaboom,’’ he said, after it failed to produce in its second game together.
The coach changed his mind, though, and stuck with it coming out of the break. And he was rewarded with goals from the unit in three straight games, before the Rangers went 0-for-2 in the 7-2 loss to the Penguins on Wednesday.
Without Hayes, Quinn put defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk on the first power-play unit against Colorado, and it remains to be seen if Hayes’ return – whenever that is – will also mean the return of the five forwards.
The players who play on the unit see no reason why it shouldn’t.
“It’s five skilled guys out there that can make plays and move around,’’ said Mika Zibanejad.
According to Zibanejad, the main difference in having five forwards – himself, Hayes, Kreider, Mats Zuccarello and Vladislav Namestnikov – is that there is more interchanging of positions than there is when the power play has a more traditional look, with four forwards and a defenseman like Shattenkirk or Pionk. Pionk had been the point man on the first power play unit for most of the season up until that Toronto game, and he generally quarterbacked the action from the blue line, with Zibanejad (a righthanded shot) usually operating atop the left circle, and Hayes or Zuccarello (both lefthanded shots) atop the right circle.
With the five forwards, Zibanejad said, the emphasis is having players in the right positions – but not necessarily the same players in the same positions all the time.
“We’ve been switching, depending on how we get into the zone, and off the faceoffs, and stuff,’’ Zibanejad said. “You don’t have to go to a certain spot. You play wherever you end up at. And I think everyone can handle the different positions and different spots on the power play.’’
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