While John Tortorella dominated discussions in his return to Madison Square Garden, Rangers goalie Cam Talbot quietly made his home debut.
Standing in an unusual spot behind the visitor’s bench, Tortorella couldn’t do much but quietly watch as the rookie goaltender dominated the former coach’s new team — as he has most teams this season — making 35 saves to help the Rangers to a 5-2 win over the Canucks on Saturday afternoon.
Talbot took the place of Henrik Lundqvist, who sat after playing the previous day in Boston, and made his eighth appearance of the season, with the first seven games of his career all coming on the road.
Talbot maintained the calm he’s displayed on the road, easing into the intense atmosphere after watching Chris Kreider score two first-period goals.
“To get out in front by two goals there right away was pretty important for us, especially against a team like this who we know can score a lot of goals,” Talbot said. “It also helped me settled into the game a little here. A lot of adrenaline running through it — first game at MSG. That was a huge boost for us. We kind of climbed on Kreider’s back and kept going.”
Talbot’s been going strong ever since he debuted in October.
The 26-year-old, who recorded shutouts in his previous two starts, has not suffered a loss since allowing two goals in his NHL debut in Philadelphia on Oct. 24 and is now 6-1 with a 1.49 GAA and a .944 save percentage.
Talbot has allowed two goals or fewer in each start and has just two fewer wins than Lundqvist, despite 12 fewer starts. After the game, Rangers coach Alain Vigneault would not confirm which goaltender would start Monday’s home-game against Winnipeg.
“I know who I’m going with,” Vigneault said. “I haven’t talked to the goaltenders yet. Everybody will know Monday.”
Talbot was solid throughout the game, never out of position, never scrambling to recover. Standing strong, he made a number of impressive kick saves, including one on a rush from Chris Higgins at 13:35 of the second period.
“He’s been great for us, him and Hank,” defenseman Michael Del Zotto said. “Having them in net for us is such a big boost, knowing that if we do make a mistake, they’re there to back us up. To see him practice and how hard he works and getting the results from him, we feel so confident having both of them in net.”
With the Rangers leading 4-0, Talbot finally was beaten on a backhand after a nifty move by David Booth, at 15:50 of the second period.
The usual silence after an opposing goal was cut short as fans began clapping and chanting — “Tal-Bot! Tal-Bot! Tal-Bot!” — warmly appreciating and recognizing the goalie’s superb play.
They couldn’t have asked for much more.
“I try to play as positional as possible, try to cut down the angles, try to flip to the corner for the most part,” Talbot said. “Today, I think I did leave a few out there in the middle of the ice and the guys did a great job of back checking, clearing those out and taking away their second chances. The guys did a great job in front of me today and I try to help them out whenever I can.”
Despite allowing a late third-period goal to Daniel Sedin off a rebound on a Canucks power play, Talbot couldn’t have had a much better Garden debut. And to him, more importantly, the Rangers couldn’t have had a much better bounce back from Friday’s loss to the Bruins.
“We have a lot of pride,” Talbot said. “We know that [Friday] wasn’t our best game, and we just didn’t get the result we wanted. Coming here today, we knew we had something to prove and I think we did that.”