The New York Rangers ended their three-game losing streak on Wednesday, but they nearly lost another top forward in the process.
Still playing without Rick Nash, who likely has a concussion, Derek Stepan was the victim of an open-ice collision with Washington Capitals forward Troy Brouwer. Although Brouwer asserted that the incident was accidental, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault believes otherwise.
Either way, Stepan fortunately feels “fine” and he doesn’t seem to be reading too much into the whole event.
“Yeah, it’s part of the game, it happens,” Stepan said, according to the Bergen Record. He added, “Obviously I never saw him coming. I can’t sit here and say if he did one thing or another. It happens, it’s part of the game. He said something to me on the ice that he didn’t see me. That’s part of it, whatever.”
Stepan went through the concussion protocol, but for now it sounds like that was a precautionary measure in his case.
No discipline for Troy Brouwer after hit on Stepan. The Department of Player Safety viewed the play as an accidental collision. #Caps #NYR
— Katie Carrera (@kcarrera) October 17, 2013
If you missed the hit, you can view it below: