The most singular weapon the Rangers have had over the last seven seasons while inexorably tilting the Battle of the Hudson toward the shores of Manhattan remained on the bench last night in Newark.
Henrik Lundqvist, the answer to the question, “Who Was That Masked Man?” as the Lone Ranger to start in goal against the Devils the last 32 times the clubs had met — 37 including the 2008 playoffs — dating back to Dec. 17, 2006, was only a bystander in his team’s excruciating 4-3 shootout defeat that first got away on a bizarre bounce with under a minute to go in regulation before Ilya Kovalchuk drove home the only goal in the skills competition.
It had been Lundqvist who had come to the battle with rounds of silver bullets in his holster that had inflicted unprecedented damage on the psyche of the Great Martin Brodeur.
Because even if goaltenders are separated by 178 feet on an NHL rink, that hasn’t stopped Lundqvist from getting into Brodeur’s head, having gone 21-5-5 in their 31 regular-season duels with a 1.62 GAA to the Devil-You-Know’s 2.29.
It has been Lundqvist as the primary force in the Rangers entering last night 25-13-5 against New Jersey since the lockout even if last year marked the first time since 1995-96 the Rangers had finished ahead of the Devils in the standings.
But it was Martin Biron who got the call last night, this a decision made some time ago by John Tortorella, the coach who would not deviate from the plan to get Lundqvist an extra practice day even though The King made it his business to join his teammates on the ice Monday, when he was not obligated to do so after having spent the weekend engaging in the All-Star festivities in Ottawa.
Lundqvist was careful not to second-guess Tortorella’s decision, though he had been caught as off-guard as everyone else on the planet when informed that he would watch from the bench for the first time ever at The Rock since it opened in 2007-08.
“I thought about [how long it has been] since they told me I’m not playing,” said Lundqvist, who will instead play tonight in Buffalo. “I’m so used to playing against these guys, I thought I would be playing.”
Brodeur once went 23 straight without a loss to the Rangers (15 victories, eight ties) back in the day. Yesterday, though, he acknowledged the Rangers had recaptured their position as, uh, Kings of the Hill, and in doing so, spoke to the obvious.
“Well, it’s [because of] Lundqvist, no doubt about that,” Brodeur said. “He’s the reason why they’ve been playing so well.
“[Marian] Gaborik has been having a great year. [Ryan] Callahan, as captain, looks to be a great leader, and everyone is following his work ethic. You can tell they’re a bunch of guys who are together.”
Tortorella has drawn a series of inside straights this season. Even last night, he got the Derek Stepan-Gaborik-Carl Hagelin unit on against the Devils’ fourth line in the final minute of the first period, a match that produced the game’s first goal.
And even last night, the coach’s decision to give Stu Bickel his first third-period shift in the last six games paid off when the defenseman’s shot from the right point led directly to the Brian Boyle goal that gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
But the decision to go with Biron did not pay off. Indeed, it can be argued the coach was guilty of breaking one of his most essential commandments, the one that instructs, “Don’t overthink it.”