01 Jan Getting to Know N.Y. Rangers Marc Staal
Name: Marc Staal
Nick name: Two percent
Born: January 13, 1987 (age 31,
turning 32 next week) in Thunder Bay,
Ontario, Canada
Family: Marc is the younger brother of Eric Staal of the Minnesota Wild, and the older brother of Jordan Staal of the
Carolina Hurricanes, and Jared Staal.
Of the four brothers, Marc is the only defense man, as well as the only one who never played for the Hurricanes.
Height: 6 ft 4 in
Weight: 214 lb
NHL Draft: 12th overall,
2005 New York Rangers
Salary: $6 million
Boyhood idol? My parents. My dad is a hard worker & never complains. My parents have always kept us grounded. They built a hockey rink for me & my brothers when we were a kid to get us out of the house and help us with the game.
Your brothers Eric, Jordan & Jared all play hockey professionally. How often do you guys talk during the season? I would say weekly. We exchange text messages after just about every game. Our schedules are so busy and different; but we keep in contact and we all keep tabs on how each other are doing.
What would you say drives you? What all hockey players want, to win the cup. You don’t go through the playoffs and the grind of it for nothing. You go through it to win that ultimate prize and win it with your teammates.
What’s your on-ice mentality? I try to keep it as level-headed as possible, and obviously there’s certain moments in every game where that can change quickly. I like to try to keep myself in a good mind frame of where I’m still competing at a high level but not crossing that line where you’re putting your team in jeopardy.
Whats your favorite part of the game? Just the game itself. Playing as a team and having great teammates. Obviously winning always helps.
Describe goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Extreme amount of competitiveness to win hockey games and to be at his best all the time. He’s not satisfied with mediocrity.
Describe Ranger fans. They are great, die hard fans. They live and breath
Rangers. Its a lot of fun to play here. Its very humbling to be playing here