A year ago, Kevin Shattenkirk was playing through a knee injury just so he could make the opening night start in his first season with his hometown Rangers. It turned out to be a bad idea, the beginning of a hugely disappointing season both for the New Rochelle native and the Blueshirts.
In the interim, he has had surgery to repair the torn meniscus in his left knee and the Rangers have marched forward with their full-scale rebuild. That included firing coach Alain Vigneault and replacing him with David Quinn, whom Shattenkirk knew from their time together at Boston University.