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Rangers defenceman says off-season ankle surgery recovery progressing well

New York Rangers defenceman Marc Staal is confident off-season ankle surgery would keep him off the ice for long.
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Marc Staal takes a swing during last week's celebrity pro-am during Staal Foundation Open festivities last week. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

New York Rangers defenceman Marc Staal is confident off-season ankle surgery would keep him off the ice for long.

The 28-year-old Thunder Bay native said he wore a walking boot on his foot for about four weeks after the operation, conducted to remove a chip from his ankle.

“The last couple of weeks I’ve just been getting it moving and rehabbing it. It’s coming along pretty slowly, but it’s starting to feel a little better now. I’m getting back into training and should be ready for the start of the season.”

It was a relatively injury-free campaign for Staal in 2014-15, as the Rangers blue-liner missed just two games. He’d missed 73 games over the previous three seasons from a variety of injuries, including a scary puck to the face incident in the strike-shortened 2013-13 season.

Looking back on the Rangers season, from a personal standpoint Staal was pleased with his play, but as a team player, he was disappointed New York couldn’t make a second straight trip to the Stanley Cup final, falling in seven games to Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference final.

“We were close. It was down to one game to get back to the final. We had some injuries pile up on us during the run and I think that hurt us going into that Game 7. We were right there. It was a lot of fun to get that far and hopefully next year we can finish it off,” he said at the recent Skate for Easter Seals Kids at the Tournament Centre.

Staal, who scored five goals and added 15 assists playing on the Rangers second defensive pairing, said there’s a lot of time between now and next June.

It’s hard to say how the Rangers will do next season.

Future hall of famer Martin St. Louis decided to hang up the blades. The Rangers lost free-agent defenceman Matt Hunwick to the Toronto Maple Leafs, signing forwards Brian Gibbons from Columbus and ViKtor Stalberg from Nashville.

Time will tell, Staal said.

“For us, we’re going to go into training camp like we did last year and try to get better as a team every day. That’s all you can do,” Staal said. “When you have a fresh outlook on the year and fresh optimism, it’s always exciting.”

At the very least, he’s hoping for a repeat of last season from a personal standpoint, with a little more success in the playoffs as a team.

“It was good. I stayed healthy for the most part. It was a really fun year to be a part of. We won a lot of hockey games and as a player when you’re having that much success as a team, it makes it that much easier to play.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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