One day after laughing about who his starting goaltender might be — making it seem the sky would sooner fall than Henrik Lundqvist not get the start in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Lightning at the Garden — Rangers coach Alain Vigneault conceded backup Cam Talbot would get his turn during this coming weekend’s back-to-back.
“We’re in a stretch now where we’re playing a lot of games in a short time,” Vigneault said, “and we have back-to-back coming up here, so if I were a betting man, I would say there’s a chance Cam would play in one of those two.”
His now go-to joke about being a betting man was met with laughter, but the truth of the matter is Vigneault is in an enviable position, again having two able goalies. That means Talbot will get his look either in Saturday’s matinee game against the Senators in Ottawa or in Sunday night’s Garden match against the Capitals.
“We have two good goaltenders we have confidence in,” Vigneault said. “One is obviously a proven veteran goaltender that we’re going to use more. But the other young goaltender has certainly proven that he can play.”
Lundqvist was solid against the Lightning, stopping 23 of 25 shots in his eighth start in the past nine games.
“I don’t think it was bad goals,” Lundqvist said. “The important thing for me is to try and give the team a chance to be close in the end, and we were. I played my game, so with that I am happy.”
It wouldn’t be the most surprising thing in the world if defenseman Michael Del Zotto found himself a healthy scratch for Thursday’s Garden match against the Red Wings.
After the Lightning tied the game 1-1 on a Victor Hedman power-play goal, Del Zotto was caught flatfooted on the next faceoff, letting Nikita Kurcherov skate right by him for a breakaway that turned into the game-winning goal. The 23-year-old is still being dangled as trade bait, and played just 3:37 in the second period before finishing with 15:43.
Vigneault called it “disappointing” considering it was a set play the Rangers had gone over on video, and even a play the Lightning had run just three shifts before.
If Del Zotto came out, that would get Justin Falk back into the lineup for the first time since Dec. 29, being a healthy scratch for the past eight.
Vigneault attended the Knicks’ 98-96 victory over the Suns at the Garden Monday night, joining his nephew and his two friends.
“It was my first experience outside a hockey atmosphere, and it was pretty cool,” he said, smiling. “Even women referees. First time.”
When asked if he thought women referees could work in the NHL, he clammed up.
“Oh jeez, I don’t know,” he said before making a quick move toward the exit.