from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The Rangers aren’t going to be foolish and expose Ryan McDonagh and his impaired left shoulder to the danger that awaits on the ice until he is healthy enough and the game is important enough to warrant his return.

But even if that will mean longer than a two-week rest, rehab and recuperation between the night he was injured in Vancouver on April 1, and the night he will make his return, most likely next Thursday at the Garden in Game 1 of the first round against either the Flyers or Blue Jackets, the opposition will be gunning for the Rangers’ best player.

They will be gunning for McDonagh and for his left shoulder that was damaged to an unknown degree when he became the meat in the Canucks’ Zack Kassian-Alexandre Burrows sandwich toward the end of that Blueshirts’ victory in Vancouver.

continued