Marc Staal in 'OK Spirits,' But Is Waiting for Swelling in Eye to Go Down, According to Eric Staal

Marc Staal in ‘OK Spirits,’ But Is Waiting for Swelling in Eye to Go Down, According to Eric Staal

by Mike Cole on Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 3:43PM

Rangers defenseman Marc Staal got a big-time scare Tuesday night when he took a puck to the eye during the Rangers’ 4-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. While Staal isn’t out of the woods yet and there still isn’t a lot of information about the extent of the injury, it sounds like he may have avoided a disaster.

NHL.com spoke with Staal’s brother, Carolina Hurricanes forward Eric Staal, and he gave an update on his brother’s gruesome injury.

“It’s hard to say now. They’re just waiting for the swelling to go down,” Eric told NHL.com. “He sounded like he was in OK spirits but we don’t know a lot right now. Obviously we’re saying prayers and hoping he dodged a bullet as far as being struck in that area. We’ll know more with some more time.”

Eric said that he spoke with his brother Wednesday morning and added that Marc sounded “pretty good” during their conversation.

Replays seemed to indicate that Marc Staal took the puck right above his right eye, but as his brother reported, it’s difficult to make a diagnosis until the swelling goes down.