It took the New York Rangers 114:41 minutes of playing time to win on Wednesday. Of that, Stu Bickel was on the ice for just 3:24 minutes. His absence from the defensive rotation led to Marc Staal logging 49:34 minutes and Ryan McDonagh playing a game-high 53:17 minutes.
So why did the New York Rangers decide to go that route? Well, Bickel’s last shift came in the second period and after a while, the Rangers were worried that he had gotten cold.
“We get in a situation when you ice Bick, and you just know this is going to go on for a while,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “It’s an awful tough situation to stick Bick into after he’s sitting for a while. So we just made the decision to stick with the five.”
Bickel has played in all 10 playoff games so far, but he hasn’t recorded more than 9:18 minutes in a contest since the Rangers began their postseason run.