The Rangers will open their second-half run to secure a playoff spot without Rick Nash, who remains sidelined with the left leg bone bruise that kept the club’s first line winger out of the final two games before the All-Star break.
“Rick had a CT-scan in the morning that didn’t show [a break],” coach Alain Vigneault, whose club resumes play Tuesday night in New Jersey, said following Monday’s practice. “It’s a bad bone bruise that’s taking longer to heal than our medical group thought.
“He’s still in pain and having a tough time walking.”
Nash is believed to have suffered the injury when he lost an edge while racing to get back and careened into the boards 30 seconds into the third period of the Rangers’ 4-1 victory in Carolina on Jan.