With only five games left in the regular season the New York Rangers are only three points away from clinching a playoff spot. They’re not quite playing for their playoff lives the way some other teams in the Eastern Conference are, but as we’re getting down to the wire, it’s important that they keep up the tempo and keep winning as they head into the post-season. It’s equally important that they stay healthy, especially for their key players like defenseman Ryan McDonagh who sustained an as yet to be specified left arm/shoulder injury in the closing minutes of last night’s win against the Vancouver Canucks.
McDonagh, arguably the team’s best skater and most valuable player other than goalie Henrik Lundqvist took a hit from Alex Burrows that left him visibly in pain as he left the ice. Burrows received a five minute elbowing penalty and a game misconduct at the 19:16 mark of the third period for what some called a dirty hit, and for which Burrows should have received retaliation. Others characterized the hit as a clean shoulder to shoulder hit which came at an unfortunately awkward angle, and the ledge on the boards may have done more damage to McDonagh’s left arm. Here’s a video of the play and hit so you can judge for yourself:
I don’t think it was a particularly dirty hit. An unnecessary one, certainly, but it wasn’t a head shot or from behind, and there doesn’t appear to have been anything malicious, but a shot like that late in a game the Canucks are clearly losing is pretty unnecessary. I’ve seen some debate on the twitterverse this morning about whether or not Burrows should be suspended for the hit, but that seems excessive to me. Like I said earlier, it wasn’t a dirty hit, he was given penalties by the referees which effectively tossed him from the game, so I don’t really see a need for further punishment from the league. (Rangers fans, please put down your pitchforks and torches, thanks.)
Whether or not the Rangers should have metered out some retaliation after the hit last night is also something I’ve seen a lot of people talking about both last night, and this morning. (And when I say a lot of people, what I really mean is my twitter time line has been taken over by a debate about when to and when not to relatiate.)
On the one hand, I totally get the argument made by a certain blogger on twitter who goes by @NYRblog makes when he says, “…AV needed to send a message, not to the Canucks, but to the rest of the league that his team won’t idly sit by as one of their top players takes a cheap shot. The Rangers likely first round opponent the Flyers will absolutely take notice of the lack of response and know that they’ll be able to take liberties with Blueshirt players without worry of retribution.”
I completely understand that hockey is a very physical game and some players are going to see the Rangers lack of retaliation as a sign that they can just push them around and take all the cheap shots they want. It doesn’t really matter much if the Rangers win the game, but lose several key players to injury in the process. On the other hand, do you want to risk your own players drawing a penalty? In this instance, with less than two minutes in the game, I don’t see any reason why someone on the Rangers shouldn’t have stepped up and sent the Canucks and everyone a message that they’re not going to tolerate cheap shots, especially against one of their most valuable players, Ryan McDonagh.
You can’t just sit by and allow another team to take a cheap shot and not do anything about it. You can see on the video above that Dan Girardi of the Rangers was right there when it happened, and didn’t do anything more than a gentle shove or two. Sure there was a tiny bit of what I like to call a “friendly gathering” as players were clearly doing a bit of shoving and likely not exchanging pleasantries, but that was it. There was no retaliation for the hit to McDonagh. It’s something the Rangers have struggled with all season long, not stepping up when one of their own is taken out, and that’s not a good trait to have headed into the playoffs. If they’re not going to stand up for their own players at this point in the season, and in a situation where there will literally be no or extremely minimal repercussions, then when will they?
As for how the Rangers may fair with McDonagh potentially out for at least a game, hopefully the two weeks they have before the start of the playoffs is enough for him to heal from what I and all other Ranger fans hope and pray is only a minor injury. All reports as of the writing of this article are that it’s a minor injury, but the Rangers have yet to release any specifics of the nature of that injury other than it’s obviously an injury to his left arm/shoulder.
The Rangers have already lost left winger Chris Kreider indefinitely with a break in his right hand which he recently underwent surgery to repair. McDonagh, a defenseman, has 13 points in his last 15 games and is fourth on the team in points. The Rangers can’t afford to lose another scorer at this point in the season.
Both Lundqvist, and Brad Richards expressed their concerns over McDonagh’s injury after the game. Lundqvist was quoted as saying, “We have important weeks ahead of us-hopefully months-and it’s important that we’re healthy.”
Richards echoed that sentiment, “It’s not a good thing to see him laying on the ice. But he’s resilient and battles through a lot. Hopefully it’s short-term and nothing serious.”
Hopefully now that Martin St. Louis has finally scored his initial goal as a New York Ranger, maybe now he can pick up some of the scoring slack if Ryan McDonagh is going to be out for a while, but I and all other Rangers fans would still rather have a healthy McDonagh as well.
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