Ryan McDonagh and Rangers Teammates Earn a Day Off WASHINGTON - There was no practice for the Rangers or the Capitals on Thursday. They were still recovering from Wednesday's Game 3, which took 4 hours 34 minutes and three overtimes to finish. Perhaps no one earned the rest more than Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who led all skaters in ice time with 53:17 of the 114:41 - meaning he played 46.5 percent of the game. In the Rangers" 2-1 victory, McDonagh blocked eight shots, more than anyone else. He helped shut down Alex Ovechkin, the two-time N.H.L. most valuable player. He made at least three forays deep into the Washington zone to try to create a goal, then managed to get back into defensive position in time. It was a nearly flawless performance by a 22-year-old in his first full N.H.L. season. Asked about what kept him going, he said: "Knowing that the guy next to me is doing it the same way. Whoever was out there was battling. McDonagh was credited with three hits, but he got hit six times. Early in the first overtime period, he was flattened by Washington's Matt Hendricks, yet he played on despite momentary cobwebs because his fellow defenseman Dan Girardi was in the trainer's room being stitched up. "I think it took him a couple shifts to get his bearings," Coach John Tortorella said after the game. And he said he was fine. He wanted more. In a soft, weary voice, about 45 minutes after Marian Gaborik's goal ended the game at 12:14 a.m., McDonagh said: "It's not really exhaustion when you win a game. You feel like all that effort paid off - that's the only way to put it. The Rangers had five players with more ice time than the Capital with the most minutes, defenseman Dennis Wideman (40:42). Tortorella and his assistant, Mike Sullivan, relied on only five defensemen in the game. Besides McDonagh, they were Marc Staal (49:34), Girardi (44:26), Michael Del Zotto (43:33) and Anton Stralman (28:00). A sixth defenseman, Stu Bickel, sat unused and forlorn on the bench after taking only three shifts, the last one early in the second period. Bickel rarely plays more than five or six shifts a game, and it did not help that his giveaway in Game 2 led to a Washington goal in the Rangers" loss. In an epic Game 3, Bickel was on the ice for only 3:24. "You get into a situation where you ice Bick and you just know this is going to go on for a while, but it's an awful tough situation to put Bick into after he's sitting for a while," Tortorella said. So we made the decision just to stick with the five. The Rangers" conditioning, emphasized annually in Tortorella's grueling preseason camps, helped them as Game 3 hurtled past the 100-minute mark. But McDonagh is a special case, Tortorella said. "He's one of our best-conditioned athletes," Tortorella said in a conference call Thursday. But the most impressive part of him, which allowed us to put trust in him right away as a coaching staff, is his mental approach. He's not afraid to make mistakes, and he recovers so very well if there is a problem. The next shift, he's right back at it. Tortorella had praise for other Rangers on Thursday, including the captain, Ryan Callahan, who played more than any other forward in Game 3 (41:48); and the fourth-line center John Mitchell, who did not have a single shot in the first nine games of the playoffs but had five in Game 3. But the most amazing performance still belonged to McDonagh, who was acquired from Montreal in the 2009 trade that sent Scott Gomez and his big contract to the Canadiens - a deal that may be the best of Glen Sather's 33-year career as a general manager. The last glimpse reporters had of McDonagh was at around 1 a.m. Thursday, when he walked slowly into the cramped visitors" dressing room at the Verizon Center. "It feels great winning that game," he said. It's the best feeling ever.