Rick Nash has been out for nearly a month with a deep bone bruise in his left leg, but the Rangers forward is scheduled to undergo more tests on Friday, potentially paving a path for him to return to practice soon.
“Hopefully by next week I’ll be back on the ice if everything’s positive,” Nash said Monday.
Unfortunately, updates rarely have been positive for Nash since he was hurt blocking a shot in Carolina on Jan. 22, keeping him out the past nine games.
Even though multiple MRIs and CT scans have shown no fracture, Nash was downgraded on Saturday from day-to-day to week-to-week and is resting this entire week.
Nash, who never has had a similar injury before and doesn’t exhibit a noticeable limp, has been surprised that the recovery is taking this long and that he’s still feeling pain while walking. But despite the setback over the weekend, he doesn’t seem worried that the injury could linger for the rest of the season.
“We’re just gonna treat it a little more cautiously,” said Nash, who was appearing at the New York Toy Fair to unveil PLAYMOBIL’s new NHL play sets. “Coming back too quickly, it could be something major instead of just taking our time with it. … That’s the hard part. Everyone says it’s just a bone bruise, but the way the doctors explain it, sometimes bone bruises are worse than breaks.
“I trust our doctors. They’ve seen stuff like this. It’s not one of those injuries where you can play through the pain. It’s one of those injuries where if you play, it could get worse. Those are the scary ones.”
Nash already attempted to return too soon, skating briefly on Feb. 2 and again for roughly 40 minutes on Feb. 3, but the 31-year-old hasn’t been back on the ice since then.
“I could tell that something was wrong,” Nash said. “I tried again the next day and it got worse. It’s just something where it’s gonna take more time than we thought. … We had the MRIs, everything’s still there. It’s just not healing the way we thought it would. We’re just gonna take another week off and go from there.”
Coming off a career-high 42 goals last season, Nash, in his fourth season with the Rangers, has recorded 12 goals and 21 assists in 45 games. In his absence, the Rangers have gone 6-2-1, winning three of the past four games also without captain Ryan McDonagh (concussion).
“It’s been great,” Nash said. “I think early on in the season we couldn’t find our defensive game and it was hurting us, but lately we’ve gotten back to the way we were last year, playing defense first. … It’s so hard. You want to be out there helping your team. It’s tough, but I’m happy they’re doing well and we’re winning.”