For the first time in his 14-year NHL career, Darius Kasparaitis was scratched from a season-opener. And while the defenseman was clearly not pleased with Tom Renney’s decision to keep him out of the lineup for last night’s Garden match against the Caps, he chose the diplomatic route when asked about it.
“It’s a big disappointment.
It’s the first time this has happened to me in my career,” Kasparaitis, still recovering from summer groin and shoulder surgeries, told The Post following yesterday’s morning skate.
“But it’s not about me, it’s about the team.
“I have to concentrate on what’s best for the New York Rangers, not Darius Kasparaitis.” What’s best for the Rangers, as Renney acknowledged yesterday morning, is to have Kasparaitis on the ice to instill a fear-factor in the opposition. But the head coach said he believes that Kasparaitis is not yet in game-ready physical condition, a sentiment he expressed several times during training camp.
“We need this warrior, but the physiological facts are that he’s not fit enough to play at the NHL level,” the head coach said. “He’s coming from a long way back after those surgeries. I think we may have underestimated the difficulty of the rehab.” Kasparaitis, the most physical Ranger defenseman by leaps and bounds, missed 12 of last year’s final 13 regular season games plus two of the four playoff matches with a groin tear he sustained on March 20.
The recuperative period following the postseason surgery that was performed in Montreal kept him off the ice until late August.
“I’ll do whatever I need to do to show Tom that I’m ready,” said Kasparaitis, replaced on the blue line by Thomas Pock. “I’ll do whatever it takes for this team to win.
“When I’m needed to be in there, I want to be the best I can be. I’m not going to say or do anything that might hurt the team.” * Jaromir Jagr was introduced in the pre-game ceremonies as team captain and thus became the 23rd man in franchise history to hold that post, “It would be a pleasure for me to be captain,” No. 68 had said on Wednesday before the appointment had been confirmed.
“The satisfaction for me of being captain of the Rangers is much higher than with other teams.” Despite practicing the previous three days with Michael Nylander centering Jagr and Brendan Shanahan and despite having told the press he intended to open the season with that unit. Renney switched off and instead reunited the Jagr-Nylander-Martin Straka troika that was so successful a year ago. Shanahan opened at right wing with center Matt Cullen and left wing Petr Prucha.
“Editorial privilege,” Renney said. “Actually, I had wanted Brendan and Jaromir to spend some time together so they’d be familiar with one another when they’re together on the power play.”