No one is going to quibble about the quality of this Rangers’ victory. No one is going to suggest that a shootout triumph is less equal than any other. No one is going to recommend that the Blueshirts throw these two points back into the bin.
Because if it’s essentially impossible for a mid-December game to assume critical proportions, last night’s 3-2 Garden victory over the Hurricanes in which Henrik Lundqvist prevailed in a five-round, 1-0 breakaway competition was essential for the King, who was distraught in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s slapstick 8-5 loss in New Jersey.
If last night was a test of Lundqvist’s resolve, he aced it. If last night represented Lundqvist’s SAT, he registered a perfect 2,400. And if there was any doubt, any doubt at all, regarding the goaltender’s ability to stand up for what most surely is his team, he erased it, just the way he’s erased 21 of the 24 shootout attempts he’s faced in going 7-1 in the competition.
Lundqvist got right back onto the horse 24 hours after absorbing the second-worst beating of his four-year NHL career. He didn’t only get on the horse, he jumped on it. It’s what he wanted, it’s what he needed, it’s what Tom Renney wanted, it’s what Renney and the Rangers needed.
“I tried to move on, but it was not easy,” said the King, whose performance was witnessed from a luxury suite by 2006 Olympic Gold Medal winning teammate Mats Sundin. “I’m really happy the game came right away so I didn’t have to sit around for a couple of days thinking about it.
“I was so disappointed. I wanted to find answers but Benny [goaltending coach Benoit Allaire] told me not to try to find answers for a game like that and to just move on and play my game.”
The goaltender wasn’t the only hero last night for a Rangers team that will bring a 20-11-2 record to California for a three-game tour this week that commences Tuesday in Anaheim.
Blair Betts had a dynamic performance, scoring a shorthanded goal and keying the pristine penalty-kill unit that snuffed eight Carolina power plays, including a 31-second two-man advantage in the first and a full two-minute two-man advantage in the third.
Lundqvist, who emerged with the victory by stopping Justin Williams after Chris Drury went up top with a backhand on Cam Ward in the top of the fifth, has a great deal of pride too. He can be excused if it had been wounded over his previous three starts in which he surrendered 17 goals on 93 shots (5.67 GAA, .817 save pct.) while losing them all.
“I don’t know whether I love the feeling of winning more than I hate the feeling of losing,” Lundqvist said before being asked if he normally takes the game home with him. He laughed.
“I live the way I play,” said The King.
Must have been a good night last night at the Castle.
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Sundin, who met yesterday with GM Glen Sather and the Rangers’ staff, has told friends money will not be his deciding factor when choosing a team.
Rangers 3 Hurricanes 2