Marc Staal was desperately trying to keep a straight face. And he did when he began to describe what was clearly a stick-to-the-groin of Alex Ovechkin in the first period of the Rangers’ 5-2 win over the Capitals on Tuesday night at the Garden.
“I was standing there, holding my ice, and he kind of skated into my stick,” Staal said. “I’m entitled to my ice as much as he is, so I just stood there.”
The play happened with just under eight minutes gone by in the first, with the game scoreless. The Rangers took a 1-0 lead on an Oscar Lindberg goal just after the Staal-Ovechkin incident occurred, and then about eight minutes after that Ovechkin tied it up with a goal of his own.
“He wasn’t happy. I poked the bear a little bit there,” Staal said. “Not the first time. He’s an intense guy. That’s kind of how it shook out early on.”
Ovechkin hardly addressed what happened after the game, telling reporters: “That’s a hockey game. It’s physical. Obviously he doesn’t want to get hit. But if he wants, hit the right way.”
Rangers coach Alain Vigneault made 39-year-old defenseman Dan Boyle a healthy scratch for the second time in the first 12 games, saying that Boyle needs to adjust to the pass-first system and accept he’s not as quick as he used to be.
“There’s no doubt that there is an adjustment there,” Vigneault said before the game. “But as you get older, it’s normal that you might not be as quick as you were before, so you have to adjust parts of your game. I think he realizes that and he’s trying to take the steps to make adjustments.”
Boyle played in 10 of the first 11 games and had no goals and two assists. In the second year of his two-year, $9 million deal — with a no-move clause — Boyle was averaging 18:01 of ice time per game, but was still turning the puck over and struggling to get it out of the defensive zone.
Dylan McIlrath, the 23-year-old, 6-foot-5 behemoth, played in his second game of the season, replacing Boyle.
“I thought for the most, he played fairly well,” said Vigneault after McIlrath was a plus-1 in 19:50, with one shot on goal and four hits while skating with the struggling Keith Yandle.
Forward Viktor Stalberg returned from his two-game absence because of a presumed concussion, replacing Emerson Etem.
Stalberg played 13:06 and finished with an assist and a plus-3 rating while skating on a line with Lindberg and Kevin Hayes, a combo Vigneault said “was our best line, at both ends of the rink.”
With Jesper Fast on the second-line right wing with Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider, that bumped J.T. Miller down to the fourth-line left wing with Dominic Moore and Jarret Stoll.