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Tortorella explains decision to bench Bickel for most of 3OT win

Ottawa Senators v New York Rangers - Game Seven

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 26: Colin Greening #14 of the Ottawa Senators controls the puck against the defense of Stu Bickel #41 and Ruslan Fedotenko #26 of the New York Rangers in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on April 26, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Bruce Bennett

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.