When the Rangers’ franchise goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist, called out of work Tuesday morning due to an illness, at least his coach and team knew they had a reliable solution to the problem.
That would be backup Cam Talbot, who made 32 saves in his second start in the past three games, a 5-3 loss to the Islanders at the Garden.
Coach Alain Vigneault found out about the situation with Lundqvist — deemed nothing more than the goalie simply not feeling well — when he got to the rink in the morning. He then had goaltending coach Benoit Allaire alert Talbot he was starting. The 26-year-old pride of Alabama-Huntsville had already started his first NHL season by going 10-3-0 with a 1.62 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage, the latter two placing him atop the league leaders if his amount of games played qualified him.
“I think I’ve kind of exceeded [my expectations this season],” Talbot said. “I didn’t expect to step in and contribute like this so far. But I’ve been getting some pretty good goal support, the guys have been playing petty well in front of me, so it’s just been a fun ride so far and hopefully I can keep it going.”
Said Vigneault: “Every time we’ve used Cam this year, he’s given us a chance to win.”
The Rangers signed and called up David LeNeveu from AHL Hartford for emergency backup duty.
Islanders defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky skated for the third straight day since his first team practice Sunday, as he tries to return from a concussion suffered on Oct. 19.
“This is the first time in my life, for three months I didn’t do anything,” Visnovsky said after his second straight morning skate. “I’m positive the head is better. I have on-ice, off-ice practice every day. And I’m trying to back as soon as possible.”
Visnovsky has at least another week of hard practice and no setbacks before he could be close to back in game shape.
“Right now, step-by-step and day-to-day is very important, because if I go very hard, I get the headache again,” said Visnovsky, who was named to the Slovakian Olympic team, but won’t play. “I need every day to try a little more, and I hope [my return] to be very soon.”
The Islanders were also without their No. 1 defenseman, Travis Hamonic, out for the fifth straight game with what is a presumed concussion. Coach Jack Capuano labeled him as “day-to-day,” yet added: “He hasn’t even started the protocol.”