Steve Valiquette, who would be the “I” in a “King and I” Broadway show about Rangers goaltending, has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his past four starts and in five of the eight he has made this season as Henrik Lundqvist’s understudy.
That’s impressive enough. Even more impressive is that Valiquette is on pace to construct the best season ever for a Blueshirts backup goalie.
Keep in mind that the Rangers did not begin to carry two goaltenders until the 1965-66 season – when Ed Giacomin, who would go on to be something somewhat special, shared the net with Cesare Maniago, who would go on to surrender Bobby Hull’s record-setting 51st goal that year.
Still, that’s 42 seasons worth of backup goaltending, though there were years in which it was difficult to designate just who was the No. 1 and just who was the No. 2. That’s usually not good news.
It was, however, very good news in the early 1970s when Gilles Villemure, though perceived as the backup, essentially split the chores with Giacomin from 1970-71 through 1974-75. None of those seasons are eligible for consideration for “Best Backup Season,” but Villemure, who shared the 1970-71 Vezina with Giacomin, is without question the best No. 2 in Rangers’ history.
Here’s a look then, at the most noteworthy seasons by legitimate backup goaltenders, as ranked by The Post:
1. Wayne Thomas: Thomas went 15-10-3 in 1978-79 with a 3.63 goals against average as John Davidson’s primary backup – Doug Soetart was also on the roster – in Fred Shero’s first season behind the bench. Thomas is the goaltender who owns the dubious distinction of spending the entire 1974-75 season on the Montreal roster without playing in so much as a single game.
2. Glen Healy: In 1994-95, Healy came to the rescue of the defending Cup champion Rangers (no, it was not a dream) by bailing out the struggling Mike Richter in the truncated, 48-game lockout season. Healy went 8-6-1 with a 2.36 GAA – Richter was 14-17-2 with a 2.92 GAA – to help the Rangers gain the final seed in the East and avoid the ignominy that would befall the Devils one year later of failing to make the playoffs as defending champs.
3. Dan Cloutier: Went 6-8-3 in 1998-99 with a 2.68 GAA backing up Richter for a terrible Rangers team. Cloutier already had earned a place in franchise history a year earlier when he pummeled Tommy Salo in a fight at the Coliseum on April 4, 1998, before taunting the Islanders bench.
4. Bob Froese: Early in the 1986-87 season, the Rangers acquired Froese, a legitimate No. 1, from the Flyers to back up reigning Vezina winner John Vanbiesbrouck. Froese, obtained for defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, was excellent, going 14-11-0 with a 3.74 GAA. But Vanbiesbrouck did not respond well to Froese’s presence on the roster, slipping to 18-20-5 with a 3.63 GAA.
5. Terry Sawchuk: In 1969-70, Terry Sawchuk concluded his brilliant NHL career with one year on Broadway, going 3-1-2 in six starts as Giacomin’s backup, including the 103rd and final shutout, 6-0 over the Penguins at the Garden on Feb. 1, 1970. Sawchuk died months later after an incident, which was never fully explained, with teammate Ron Stewart at a postseason barbecue.