Staal says headaches less severe

As the Rangers prepared to open their preseason schedule, defenseman Marc Staal, who has been suffering from post-concussion headaches, said Tuesday that they were still occurring but were less severe.

Nonetheless, Staal will not make the trip to Albany, where the Rangers face the Devils Wednesday night, nor will he play against the Devils on Friday or the Flyers on Monday before the Rangers head to Europe.

"When I first started working out in the summer, I couldn't get through a workout without getting a headache," Staal said in his first comments since it was revealed Sunday that he suffereed a concussion on a high hit from his brother, Eric, of the Hurricanes, on Feb. 22. "I've been improving over the last two, three weeks; I hope it keeps going in that direction. They've been taking a lot longer to come . . . I feel no symptoms if I don't do anything. If I push myself really hard, more often than not, I'll get a headache."

Some headaches, he said, have lasted five hours, others just one.

Staal said acupuncture "seems to have helped quite a bit," and he had experienced no other symptoms. He passed a baseline neurological test Friday.

The Rangers are being very cautious with their All-Star defenseman. Coach John Tortorella said there was no rush to get Staal in the lineup and playing would totally depend on how the 24-year-old felt. "I trust him," Tortorella said.

"It's kind of a tricky area to predict," Staal said. "As soon as I can get a stretch where I'm not getting headaches during workouts, then I'll start playing."

Staal was held out for three games after the Feb. 22 hit, then two in March, before playing the rest of the season and the playoffs. The symptoms were "not this noticeable," he said. "I never had a concussion before, and when you play 30 minutes a night, you feel rundown, you don't feel that great to begin with, so at the time, I wasn't really concerned."

Notes & quotes: Henrik Lundqvist, Brandon Dubinsky, Dan Girardi, Artem Anisimov and Sean Avery are among the NHLers going to Albany. Brad Richards, who skipped drills after the scrimmage with a minor groin strain, won't go. Carl Hagelin, the speedy University of Michigan forward whom Tortorella said was among six or seven players with a shot at making the club, will go, as will touted defenseman Tim Erixon.