ESPN –  New York Rangers captain Ryan Callahan will miss only 10 to 14 days with a shoulder subluxation suffered Tuesday night against Philadelphia.  The original projections had Callahan out 4 to 6 weeks based on the assumption that his shoulder had separated entirely during his fight with Flyers forward Maxime Talbot. 

Phew.  With this slow start to the season and the Rangers’ lack of secondary scoring, we cannot afford to lose Callahan for a long time.  He’s the freakin captain, the heart and shot-blocking-soul of this team.  Everyone rallys when Cally’s kicking ass.  So when the Garden saw his gloves come off on Tuesday night against the Flyers, the place went fucking bananas… for about seven seconds.  But then we saw him b-line right for the door favoring a shoulder and the place got real quiet, real quick.  That dude is more than a fan favorite.  He’s a folk hero.  A hard working, little guy whose sheer determination outweighs a lot of players’ actual talent.  Come to think of it, we should have a Callahan shirt at the stool, but the only designs I can think of involve American flags and giant fucking hearts.  Too Fa’afafine for you hardos.

On the other side of things, how fucking unnecessary was this injury.  First off, Talbot turns around and sees that the guy pulling him off Lundqvist is the Rangers’ captain and immediately sheds his gloves like they were on fire, going after Cally before mutual consent was established.  Usually that kinda play results in a scrum of sorts, not a full on fight.  If that had happened to Sidney Crosby, the league would be in a fucking uproar about it right now.  But Callahan didn’t turtle or run away like Sid would have.  No, he took Talbot’s bait and, both of them being the fighting novices that they are, somebody got injured.  Sucks that he’s hurt, but blue bloods are breathing a doubly loud sigh of relief now that the diagnosis is half as bad.  @PhilOsgood