Rangers veteran back to being the team’s ‘calming influence’

The Broadway Hat hung in the locker, its unassuming tenant nowhere to be found.

Monday night at the Garden was the second time in the past week the reward bestowed upon the Rangers’ player of the game, as chosen by the team, went to Marc Staal. But the veteran defenseman didn’t feel compelled to talk about his play and revel in the glory after he scored a goal for the first time since the second game of last season.

More importantly, the 31-year-old Staal has continued to be a steadying defensive force. That defensive stability had been inconsistent over the past few years as he was stifled by injury, but has returned at least in part for the opening quarter of this new era under first-year head coach David Quinn.

“I just think he’s really had a good year,” Quinn said after the team’s 4-2 win over the Senators, the first leg of a home-and-home that will finish after a day off on Tuesday, a practice at home on Wednesday, and a game in Ottawa on Thursday night.

“Defensively, I think he’s a calming influence on our team, in the locker room and on the ice. He works hard, he wants to get better. I’ve just liked his year, I really have.”

A week earlier, Staal also was given the hat by his teammates, having been on for a 1:27 shift near the end of regulation that helped successfully protect a one-goal lead against a six-on-five man-advantage, eventually resulting in a 2-1 victory over the Stars. That was in the midst of the Rangers’ 9-1-1 run that brought this season back to more than just relevancy, to the distinct possibility of making the playoffs.

Following a disappointing Thanksgiving weekend when they got hammered in Philadelphia then lost at home to the reigning Stanley Cup-champion Capitals, the Blueshirts were able to steady things out with a mostly tight win over the Senators. And Staal, having played a stout 20:26 alongside young partner Neal Pionk, again did what was asked of him.

“I think he’s defended well,” Quinn said. “I think he’s eaten a lot of minutes, and played against the other team’s top players.”

Maybe the biggest testament of Quinn’s confidence in Staal is the fact he is the only defenseman yet to be scratched by the coach, who is not just preaching accountability, but enforcing it. At almost every juncture, Quinn has said the team has eight defensemen who can play — which includes the currently injured Adam McQuaid — and he has frequently rotated them in and out.

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Yet not until he scratched Brendan Smith for last Wednesday’s game against the Islanders did Quinn say it was “the first time this year that a guy is sitting that shouldn’t be.” That means the coach thinks Staal is not being gifted his lineup spot, but earning it every night.

“Has every night been a great night? No,” Quinn said. “But he hasn’t had many bad nights.”

There is a vocal online contingent of fans who malign Staal, and they point to his possession stats as evidence. His Corsi-For percentage at five-on-five — meaning the percentage of shot attempts for his team that occur while he’s on the ice — is 44.44. As a team, the Rangers went into league play on Tuesday night ranked 29th in the league at 45.65.

First on that list? The Hurricanes, at 58.49. They were also far and away the top team in the league, averaging 39.9 shots per game. And they were also 5-4-1 in their previous 10 and not in the playoff picture.

With teams devaluing shot quantity compared to shot quality, the weight of possession stats based on shot attempts is lessening. Surely teams have other unpublished metrics — like Quinn mentioning his team had four minutes more offensive-zone time than the Capitals on Saturday — and those metrics, for the time being, are clearly helping to keep Staal in the Rangers lineup.

“I like an awful lot of the things he’s done for us this year,” Quinn said, “on the ice and in the locker room.”