3:51PM: David Quinn spoke with the media after practice and said (NYR):
- On the injured players, “it was the first day of full practice for all of the guys and I haven’t had a chance to speak with Rammer to see how they responded but with all of them it’s see how they feel.”
- Is Buchnevich ahead of schedule, “this is pretty much where we thought he would have an opportunity to get back to full practice. It’s how is he gonna react to the practice and contact and things of that nature.”
- Are the injured guys possible for this weekend, “they are all possible depending on how they react. It’s tough to say for sure whether they will get in the lineup, but if they continue to make progress, we don’t play until Saturday so it’s a lot of time for them to improve. We will just go day to day with all of them.”
- Is McQuaid possible for the weekend, “probably not, no but you never know.”
- On McQuaid, “week to week turned into six-weeks, that is week to week. (laugh) It was a freak injury and something that we thought would be short-term but turned into long-term. There was a lot of uncertainty with it and we didn’t want to put a timetable on it because you didn’t want to put any pressure on the player for sure.”
- On working with Buchnevich in practice, “the best part of that, he came to me, we were just talking about body positioning, defense positioning, quickly closing on people and where his stick should be. The fact that he is asking questions and coming to us to talk about those things is a great sign. We need him. Those three games before he got hurt, he took his game to another level and I’ve loved his work ethic since he’s been hurt, he has come here everyday, worked really hard and we have missed him. It’s good to see that he has picked up where he left off from a work ethic standpoint.”
- Expectations on when Buchnevich returns, “as long as his intentions are right. Guys are going to make mistakes but what are your intentions and as long as he has the work ethic and trying to do the right thing, you let a guy play through mistakes. Once you sense cheating and laziness creep in, that is when I have a problem. He has been out for a while so it will take him some time for sure, but as long as he works hard and his intentions are in the right area then he will get back to where he was a lot quicker than if he wasn’t trying to do the right thing and didn’t have a work ethic.”
12:20PM: Kevin Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith are not skating at practice on Tuesday with what the team is calling maintenance days. (NYR)
Players that are skating today include (Stephenson):
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- Mats Zuccarello
- Vlad Namestnikov (Non-contact jersey)
- Pavel Buchnevich
- Adam McQuaid (Non-contact jersey)
McQuaid has missed the past 18 games with a lower body injury, Buchnevich has missed 11 games with a broken thumb, Mats Zuccarello has missed the past five games with a groin injury and Namestnikov missed the last three with a concussion.