The long and winding road on which the Rangers won three of their first nine games has finally led to Broadway and the remodeled Garden.
And when the puck drops Monday night for the belated home opener against the Canadiens, Henrik Lundqvist will be in nets for the Blueshirts after a week of rehabbing an unidentified injury.
“I feel good, [the injury] is not something I’m thinking about any more,” Lundqvist said on Sunday after the Blueshirts practiced for the first time on MSG ice. “I’m thinking about the game and stopping shots.”
Cam Talbot was in net for each of the club’s last two games, Saturday’s 3-2 overtime victory in Detroit that followed Thursday’s 2-1 defeat in Philadelphia. So Lundqvist’s return isn’t a matter of either the club or the goaltender engaging in risky business by accelerating the timetable.
“It’s fair to say this worked out how we planned it,” Lundqvist said. “Every game you’re more desperate to come back, but you have to be smart and not push the process.”
The Blueshirts have gotten their game in some sort of order since returning from their opening western swing with a 1-4 record and a grotesquely bloated goals-against average. In splitting the last four, the Rangers have only allowed eight goals. True enough, they’ve scored but six, but keeping the puck out of the net is truly hockey’s first commandment.
“We’ve been focusing on making reads faster and doing a better job of coverage,” said Derek Stepan. “There are still some kinks we have to address, but for the most part we’ve been much better with our decision-making when we don’t have the puck.”
There’s been an improvement in decision-making with the puck, as well. The Rangers have stopped trying to make something out of nothing through the neutral zone and at the offensive line, instead chipping the puck deep and getting in on the forecheck.
Hence, fewer turnovers off which the team is forced into fire drills of odd-man rush coverage the way the Rangers were through their misadventures out west.
“When we turn the puck over, we make it tough on ourselves,” said Stepan, who is still seeking his first goal. “That’s something that’s been stressed to the group and that we’re certainly aware of.”
The Rangers played with a collective chip on their shoulder in Detroit. They carried the game, pushed the pace and forced the skilled Red Wings to play shifts at a time in their own end. They were able to build momentum off a series of hard forecheck shifts.
“Every line was creating chances and so everyone felt more confident,” Brad Richards said. “That kind of thing becomes contagious where everybody builds off it.
“Everybody’s battle level and urgency was up,” said the alternate captain. “That’s the way we have , especially with the injuries. We have to keep going.”
Rick Nash, concussed, remains sidelined indefinitely. Ryan Callahan, who skated on his own without a stick before Sunday’s practice, is probably about three weeks away. Carl Hagelin, rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery, is eligible to come off the long-term injury list Tuesday at the Coliseum, but might not return for another game or two after that.
But Lundqvist is good to go immediately for the Blueshirts, who have five of the next six and seven of the next nine at the Garden. The Rangers did not bury themselves with their 3-6 start—five points out of a playoff spot with two games in hand, if it’s not foolish to cite such numbers at this point—but they do have to start winning on a consistent basis.
And in order to do that, they will need Lundqvist not only at full health, but at the top of his game. The mystery injury’s impact on the goaltender’s play is a mystery in itself, but The King needs to be far better than he was before getting repair work on his crown.
“I’m not going to say it was the injury,” said Lundqvist. “It was more my mind-set and approaching it the right way. When you get off to a tough start, you tend to focus more on negative things.
“That’s something I have to turn around.”
If Lundqvist and the Rangers are going to do it, well, there’s no place like home.