Marc Staal is a Rangers relic who proved he still belongs

Part 18 in a series analyzing the Rangers.

You could start with perhaps the most baffling incident on the ice that I’ve ever seen, which would be Eric Staal’s crushing hit up high that concussed his brother, Marc Staal, in Carolina on Feb. 22, 2011.

Or maybe with the calamity at the Garden on March 5, 2013, when Marc was struck in the right eye on Jakub Voracek’s deflection of Kimmo Timonen’s shot and lost the vision in that eye.

Because those are the two defining moments of Staal’s career in New York that began with the 2007-08 season. Now that Zak DeOssie’s tenure with the Giants has ended, Staal is second in longevity among professional athletes in this town, with only Henrik Lundqvist (2005-06) exceeding his seniority.

(Brett Gardner, a Yankee since the last day of June, 2008, is third on the list. Fourth? Josh Bailey, an Islander since 2008-09).

But rather than point to that pair of signal moments that altered the course of Staal’s career, let’s go back to this past Oct. 29 when the Rangers were at the Garden against the Lightning and No. 18 was designated as a healthy scratch by David Quinn to make room for Ryan Lindgren’s addition to the lineup.

Was designated as a healthy scratch for the first time in his career.

Staal didn’t like it. Not even a tiny bit. And he liked it less when he was scratched the next game, too, at Nashville on Nov. 2. And a whole lot less than that when he sat for a third straight time against Ottawa on Nov. 4. He was angry.

And he played like it after he was reinstated for the following game against the Red Wings on Nov. 6. There was another enforced break soon after that cost Staal 13 games when he underwent ankle surgery after having developed an infection. But when he returned on Dec. 6, he reclaimed his job and never looked back or over his shoulder.

The coach had laid down a challenge. Be better. And that is exactly what a reinvigorated Marc Staal was after accepting that challenge. He was strong in the corners, effective in the one-on-one’s, better in his positioning and with his work in front than he’d been in a couple of years.

He brought a large measure of stability to the back end. And his strong work allowed the team to return Libor Hajek to Hartford to continue his apprenticeship after the NHL became just a bit too much for the 22-year-old

His steadiness on the left allowed his partner, Tony DeAngelo, to offensively thrive on the right side. And No. 18 provided a reminder of who is he and what he has meant to the Rangers on the ice and as a leader in the room. Only five men have played more games in the Blueshirt than Staal’s 892, and they are Harry Howell, Brian Leetch, Rod Gilbert, Ron Greschner and Walter Tkaczuk.

Tkaczuk’s longevity as a Ranger never fails to somehow catch me off guard. The way Chris Kreider is the survivor among all the young forwards to flow through the pipeline last decade, that was Tkaczuk a generation ago. The center of the famed Bulldog Line actually played two games with the team midway through 1967-68 as a 20-year-old up from Kitchener of the OHA before making it for good the following season.

He had Billy Fairbairn to his right and a passel of guys on the left, from Dave Balon — one of the most underrated goal-scorers to ever play for the team — to Gene Carr to Steve Vickers, who was the best of them all. No. 18 played 945 games for the Rangers, so 53 more than Staal. The last one of Tkaczuk’s career was on Feb. 2, 1981 at the Garden in a 3-2 defeat to the Kings. He was hit in the right eye by a puck that bounced freakishly off the ice and lost his vision in that eye. He never played again.

The trajectory of the 33-year-old Staal’s career was forever altered by the eye injury and the concussion-inducing hit in Carolina. The Rangers moved up from No. 16 to 12 to grab him in the 2005 ping-pong ball lottery draft that followed the canceled season. The Blueshirts, Penguins, Sabres and Blue Jackets all had the same shot at the first overall selection who would be Sidney Crosby. The Rangers wound up with the 16th-overall pick. Don’t ask me. When the financially failing Penguins emerged with the prize, the ghost of Dave DeBusschere nodded knowingly.

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But the Blueshirts dealt their first and second to the Thrashers in order to move up and grab Staal, who was a two-way guy with power play ability. In 2010-11, in fact, he got 2:38 per on the PP playing for John Tortorella. He may not have gotten a total of 2:38 since, evolving into a stay-at-home guy who was never shy about laying the lumber on Crosby in the running series of playoff confrontations between the teams.

As the league became speedier by the day, Staal did not. As defensemen have become more mobile by the month, Staal has not. He’s a dinosaur in this league. A Tyrannosaurus Rex who proved this season that he is by no means on the verge of extinction.

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