It was a scary moment, one that saw the Rangers season lying on the Garden ice in a heap.
That would be franchise goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who was part of a massive collision with Penguins forward Chris Kunitz early in the overtime period of what would result in a 4-3 shootout win for Pittsburgh.
Kunitz went hard to the net, shot a soft backhand that Lundqvist stopped, and then slammed directly into the goalie’s head, sending him to the ice face-first and writhing in pain. After being attended to by trainer Jim Ramsay, Lundqvist stayed in the game and didn’t seem to have any ill effects.
“I feel pretty good, it’s just a stiff neck,” Lundqvist said after his season-high seventh consecutive start. “I expect it to be pretty sore and stiff [Thursday]. I’m just happy it wasn’t worse than that. I didn’t see him coming at all and it was a big collision.”
Lundqvist didn’t think Kunitz meant to run him, and even though he was OK, was certainly shaken up.
“At first I wasn’t sure because it was hard to focus,” said Lundqvist, who appeared in his 538th game and tied Eddie Giacomin for third on the team’s all-time goaltender appearance list. “The first minute was just to regroup a little bit. Then the neck started to get a little sore, but after a minute or two, I knew I could continue playing.”
Kunitz was called for goaltender interference, but the Rangers couldn’t score on the ensuing power play and lost when Brandon Sutter beat Lundqvist in the fifth round of the skills competition.
Forward Taylor Pyatt was a healthy scratch for the second straight game. He had a conversation with general manager Glen Sather in the dressing room after the morning skate, and his status with the team is in question.
Minutes after that conversation, coach Alain Vigneault said no demotion or trade of Pyatt was pending — “not to my knowledge” was how he tiptoed around the question — but Pyatt certainly isn’t making it hard for the coach to scratch him.
“Right now, he’s on the outside,” said Vigneault, who has now scratched Pyatt in four of the past 10 after he returned from an eight-game absence due to a concussion. “After a strong training camp, he was given a lot of opportunities, whether it be on the top two lines, third, fourth. He never really, after training camp, got his game going. Right now, he’s on the outside looking in, and I’m not sure where all that is going to go.”
With the holiday roster freeze going into effect on Friday at 12 a.m., even if Pyatt were placed on waivers immediately, he couldn’t be sent to AHL Hartford — or claimed — until the freeze ends at 12 a.m. on Dec. 28.
Dylan McIlrath, the 6-foot-5 rookie defenseman, was a healthy scratch after playing two games in a row, the first his NHL debut on Thursday. He was replaced by rugged forward Arron Asham, as the Blueshirts had dressed seven defensemen and 11 forwards for Sunday’s 4-3 shootout win over the Flames.
Asham got just one shift after the first period, and finished with a game-low 4:19.