Looking like he was made for this moment, in this place, Henrik Lundqvist stood at a podium in the bowels of Yankee Stadium, this $1 billion cathedral to pomposity, his cuff links shined, vest buttoned, maroon striped tie matched with a pocket square, smiling.
The face of the Rangers franchise and the backstop between their pipes had just completed a sweep of this Stadium Series, a 2-1 win over the Islanders on Wednesday night in front of 50,027 who braved the frigid temperature to watch a performance of his that will resonate not just through this small little segment of the schedule, but moving forward as the Blueshirts start to find themselves in the midst of a season that might mean something after all.
“We want to win these games to be able to look back at in a couple years, a couple months, whatever, and just have a smile on your face instead of thinking about the mistakes or a loss or whatever,” said Lundqvist, who finished with 30 saves as an encore to his team’s 7-3 drubbing of the Devils out in the snowy Bronx conditions on Sunday afternoon. “Now, it’s two days that I will remember for the rest of my life. Overall, just a great experience for all of us.”
Overall, for the Rangers (29-23-2) what this means is four points over Metropolitan division teams, four important points as the two-week Olympic break nears. They are 8-3-1 in their past 12, vaulted three points clear of the Flyers for second and, well, 15 back of the first-place Penguins.
But you have to start somewhere, no?
“I don’t pay a lot of attention to the status that we’re in,” said coach Alain Vigneault, whose team got the game-winner 4:36 into the third when fourth-liner Dan Carcillo banged in a rebound. “We’re in a one game, one-game-at-a-time mentality. We’re trying to win our share of games and that’s not going to change.”
This one was up for grabs as late as the third period, as the Islanders (21-27-8) were desperately trying to hold on to some semblance of postseason hope. With energetic fans that traded chants throughout the night, the Isles staked themselves to a 1-0 lead on a Brock Nelson goal with under two minutes remaining in the second period. But it was soon matched when Benoit Pouliot answered it just 40 seconds later, taking a puck off his chin before whacking it past goalie Evgeni Nabokov.
On that play, Derick Brassard had the puck behind the net and attempted to bank it in off Nabokov, saying the tendency of the 38-year-old netminder to play far out of his net was part of their pre-scouting discovery.
“Everyone knows that; that’s his style,” Brassard said. “It’s kind of the old ways a little bit. … He’s pretty good, but that’s the way he’s playing, and we found a way to score two goals.”
Nabokov also was somewhat far from his goal line when Carcillo found the rebound of a Dominic Moore shot from the right face-off dot, pretty well dumbfounding the ruffian winger, even in what most likely will be the closest he gets to an offensive spotlight.
“I don’t know,” Carcillo said when asked how it felt to score the winning goal. “Sometimes you get lucky. It bounces on your stick and you have the open net.”
So maybe Carcillo doesn’t exactly look at home here in this newly hallowed ballpark, but luckily behind him was someone with the class of Lundqvist, shutting down the Islanders late extra-attacker flurry, and eventually taking it all in as his team takes away four points.
“It was another amazing night,” Lundqvist said. “You’re just thankful to get this opportunity.”