TORONTO — This is no longer about finding time to get Henrik Lundqvist rest. This, rather, is about creating the opportunity for the Rangers’ franchise goaltender to get back on top of his game.
“The last few weeks have been OK, I don’t think I’ve been giving up bad goals, but I need to come up with more big saves to give us the chance to win,” The King said after recording 22 saves in a 4-3 shootout victory over the Maple Leafs in going back-to-back for just the fourth time this season and first time since Feb. 11-12.
“I’m trying to push myself to be a little bit sharper where I can be the difference in games, because the difference really is so small.”
The difference between the first-place Rangers and second-place Pittsburgh increased to three points with the Penguins’ 8-4 defeat at Ottawa last night. The Rangers have seven games to go, the Penguins have eight, picking up their game in hand at home tonight against the Devils.
Odd, but for a team that professes not to place too much emphasis on the results of a game, the Rangers were quite the happy bunch after Brad Richards got his first shootout goal of the season following eight misses, one round before Ryan Callahan won it by beating Jonas Gustavsson to the blocker side.
“Of course it’s important for us to win. It gives us confidence,” said Marian Gaborik, who had a splendid night while scoring his 36th and 37th goals. “We know that we had a couple hiccups, but it’s easier to build off a win than a loss.”
One of the hiccups was a Brandon Dubinsky missed read as the third-man high against a Toronto breakout that helped create a two-on-one off which Cody Franson scored at 9:11 of the first period. This occurred one night after the Sabres scored on three odd-man rushes at the Garden.
“It was not a good feeling to happen right away, I have to say that,” Lundqvist said. “But I still had to battle. I just tried to move on.”
Coach John Tortorella moved Dubinsky off the unit with Derek Stepan and Callahan and onto the bench, before giving him limited fourth-line duty the rest of the way while Carl Hagelin moved into the Top Six.
Even after Dubinsky scored at 15:29 of the second to knot the game at 2-2, the winger got just two brief shifts in the third period — one on one of the club’s three successful penalty kills within a span of 5:59 in the third — before getting a turn in overtime, finishing his night with 7:51 of ice.
Richards made a blunder in the defensive zone that helped the Maple Leafs grab a 2-1 lead, but made a nifty feed to Gaborik to give the Rangers a 3-2 third-period lead after being allowed to remain in place.
Beyond the two points, beyond the Dubinsky benching, the night was most notable for the decision to go with Lundqvist back-to-back and the King’s acknowledgement that he needs to lift his game to the elite level he established through the first five months of the season.
“I want to get my game going and to do that I need to get back to being more patent because right now I’ve been a little too anxious to make saves,” said The King, who has made 56 starts after getting between 67 and 72 in each of the last five seasons. “However many games I play the rest of the way, if they to give me the rest, I’m fine with it.”