Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh practiced Saturday wearing a red non-contact jersey for the first time since he was concussed one week prior from a sucker-punch by the Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds.
The defenseman’s return to the ice came a day before Sunday night’s Rangers-Flyers rematch at the Garden, where emotions surely will be high because of the cheap shot, despite some Rangers downplaying that fact after practice, trying to focus on getting two points after Friday’s overtime loss to the Kings.
“You can’t go out of your way to try to do too much,” Dylan McIlrath told the Daily News before acknowledging that there still is some lingering bitterness over the fact that Simmonds went after the Rangers’ captain.