Sunday night, after the Rangers’ 4-1 loss in Montreal in which Henrik Lundqvist allowed as many as four goals for the first time in 25 starts since the end of October, he told The Post he was disappointed in himself.
Forty-eight hours later, following the 3-0 Madison Square Garden victory over the Predators that represented his fourth shutout of the year, The King said he was somewhat more pleased with his game, even if not entirely so.
“I didn’t feel great, but I was battling,” Lundqvist told The Post after his 27-save performance that marked his 39th career shuout, third in franchise history behind Ed Giacomin (49) and Davey Kerr (40). “I just needed to be more aggressive.
“The way I play so deep [in the net], if I’m not active and challenging, then I’m going to be in trouble. The last two games [including last Thursday’s 3-0 defeat to Ottawa], I had fallen into bad habits that I had to correct.
“I talked to Benny [goaltending instructor Benoit Allaire] during the day about some of those things and was a little bit better.”
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Of immediate note, Brandon Dubinsky returned to the lineup after missing three games with a sore right shoulder, and Ruslan Fedotenko also rejoined the club after being sidelined with a bad back Sunday night in Montreal.
“If this were the playoffs I’d have been playing the whole time, but I didn’t want to make it worse,” the left wing told reporters before the match in which he played 15:06. “From what I was told, there was no structural damage.
“There are always aches and pains. It’s not just me, a lot of guys are playing through something. The good news is that [the pain] is bearable.”
As the two forwards were pronounced fit for duty, the Rangers’ three injured defensemen each reported progress in their respective rehabs. Michael Sauer, who was concussed on Dec. 5, made the most news by skating with the club for the first time since sustaining the injury, though he is not close to a return.
Neither is Steve Eminger, who skated with the club for the first since sustaining a separated shoulder in Phoenix on Dec. 17. Jeff Woywitka, though, who initially suffered a bruised left foot in that same match before later aggravating it in practice, is close.
Sauer, who skated on his own for the first time on Monday, said he has basically been symptom-free for a little more than a week, though he might still have an occasional headache.
That represents a dramatic improvement from the previous five weeks, during which time he suffered from post-concussion symptoms including nausea, loss of memory, the inability to focus his vision properly and bed spins.
“Every concussion can be different, so you have to listen to your head,” said Sauer, who sustained the injury with 4:42 remaining in the third period of the Rangers’ Dec. 5 match at the Garden against the Maple Leafs when Dion Phaneuf caught him with a high hit that knocked off his helmet. “If you’re not feeling good or not seeing something, it’s a symptom.
“I have to take it one day at a time, but I know it will continually get better. I know it’s going to be better.”
It took approximately five weeks for Marc Staal to rejoin the lineup after he was cleared to skate after his post-concussion symptoms disappeared.
Eminger, who originally was projected to be out from 8-to-10 weeks, said he is at least another three weeks away from a possible return.
Woywitka returned on Dec. 28 for two games after missing four with the foot injury, but came out of the lineup as a healthy scratch when Staal returned for the Winter Classic. The defenseman then took a shot on the foot during a practice the following week and had been off the ice for about a week until yesterday.
It will be a coach’s decision whether Woywitka, a left-hand shot who has only played the left side for the Rangers, rejoins the lineup on the right side in place of rookie Stu Bickel, who did not get a shift in the third period last night after getting 6:55 of ice through two periods.
The left side is set with Staal, Dan Girardi and Michael Del Zotto.
Sauer and Eminger are right-handed, and Ryan McDonagh and Anton Stralman have been the top two on that side for the last 14 games with Bickel on the third pair.
Thus, if all the defensemen are healthy at the same time for the first time this year, coach John Tortorella will have personnel decisions to make.
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The Carl Hagelin-Derek Stepan-Marian Gaborik line remained intact throughout last night’s match, but Tortorella flipped right wings on the units centered by Brad Richards and Brian Boyle after the first period. Callahan, who opened with Richards and Dubinsky, joined Boyle and Fedotenko while Brandon Prust went the other way.
“Torts didn’t say anything. That’s just the way he sent us out there,” Boyle said. “I really haven’t played too much with Cally except at the ends of some games, but the group has been together for a while now, so we’re basically interchangeable.”
Stepan’s line—on which Hagelin was dogging the puck throughout—got 7:09 in the third while Boyle got 6:46 and Richards played just 3:52.
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The Rangers were 0-for-2 without a shot on two power plays worth 2:05, each truncated because of a Rangers penalty. Rangers are 1-for-25 on the power play in their last 11 games, 3-for-43 over the last 17.