Rangers' McDonagh skating at full strength again

New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh is skating at full strength and has resumed his normal training regimen roughly one month after coming out of a walking boot that he had been in for six weeks because of a broken right foot.

"It's safe to say it's getting better every day and feeling pretty much 100 percent at this point now," McDonagh told NHL.com in a phone interview from his home in Minnesota on Wednesday. "We said June 1 was the starting date, so we're more than two-and-a-half months in. I'm back skating on the ice, doing leg strength stuff in the weight room, running and jumping. I'm really trying to put it all behind me now and gear up here for the start of training camp."

McDonagh broke his right foot in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning and continued to play on it until the Rangers were eliminated in the seven-game series. He missed the first 12 minutes of Game 7 because he and the Rangers training staff struggled to get his foot to feel good enough in his boot to where he felt he could play.

Once the season was over, the 26-year-old defenseman consulted with Rangers doctors about the proper course of action. They said he would not need surgery because the bones were aligned properly and would heal on their own.

McDonagh feels they were right.

He went into a walking boot June 1 and had to use crutches for two weeks. He had to stay in the walking boot until the middle of July. When he got out of it, he had to regain the strength in his foot, so he couldn't start skating until Aug. 1.

McDonagh said he skated a couple of times each week for the first two weeks of August. This week, he's skated every day.

McDonagh plans to return to New York on Sept. 1 to begin informal workouts at the Rangers practice facility in advance of training camp.

"There should be no issues now," he said. "We've got a big Octagon agency skating camp going on right now with 60-something guys skating every day, and there is really no soreness anymore after skating. It's been exciting. I'm finally starting to feel like myself again."

---