In the absence of Marc Staal, the New York Rangers have counted on defenseman Dan Girardi to step up and take the reigns on defense - through two games he has done just that. Along with Ryan McDonagh, he's risen to the challenge of playing a hefty number of minutes per game and hasn't complained about it once. The Rangers may have lost both of their games to this point, but despite that, Girardi has still been a star on the Blueshirt blue-line.
Over the course of last season, more so than ever, Girardi established himself on this team. Remember, when head coach John Tortorella was firsthired in 2009, Girardi was nowhere near the top of his defensive depth chart by any means. That's obviously changed since then and Girardi's steady play in his own zone and slowly-developing contributions offensively have helped with that as well.
When paired with Staalsy, Girardi is his absolute best. I said many times last year that they were possibly the greatest shutdown pair...
Original Story:
