The Rangers have dropped a season-high five straight and sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic Division, so it should come as no surprise that Scott Gomez, who signed with the Blueshirts after years of knowing virtually nothing but success across the river, wasn’t in the mood to celebrate his selection to the All-Star team.
“I’m worried about what’s going on here,” the former Devil said. “I think the [selection] is kind of secondary.”
He’d rather focus on the task of getting the Rangers out of their current funk, which he is confident they can do.
“We’ve got the team in here,” Gomez said of the Blueshirts, who host Montreal tonight. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Perhaps, but the season isn’t getting any younger.
“The thing is, when we play to our capabilities, we’re a tough team to beat,” said Gomez, who has a team-high 40 points (10 goals and 30 assists) and is making his second trip to the All-Star Game.
“We’ve got to do that. It’s right there. We’re kind of teasing ourselves. We can be such a great team when we’re all going together.”
That’s something they haven’t done much of, and certainly wasn’t evident in a 6-2 loss to Philadelphia on Thursday.
But Gomez remains confident.
“There’s a lot of people that are laughing right now and having a good time seeing us where we’re at,” Gomez said. “We’re gonna turn this around.”
If they do, goalie Henrik Lundqvist is going to have to be a part of it.
The goaltender was left off the All-Star team and won’t join area goalies Martin Brodeur – an original selection – and Rick DiPietro – who was also named yesterday – in Atlanta.
His recent woes didn’t help his cause.
“The last few weeks, maybe my game hasn’t been as sharp as early on,” said Lundqvist, who is 4-7-3 with a 3.49 GAA in recent weeks.
“It would have been fun to play in that game, but I’ll take that time to rest and recover.”
The Rangers have to hope he’s better before then, and coach Tom Renney knows Lundqvist needs some help.
“He’s doing what he can to battle through what we leave him, which is significant,” Renney said.
“But we’re all trying to find our way. It’s tough to be a goaltender. It’s kind of going from being bad to worse in front of you and you’re the last man. So everything falls on his shoulders.
“We have to be a more responsible, competent, confident team and allow him to be the great goaltender that he is.”
Meantime, Renney likes having Gomez’s confident voice in the locker room, although he knows that’s not enough.
“Having him around helps a lot,” Renney said. “But we’ve got to put those words into action. We can’t panic, but we need to start winning games. The time is now.”
*
Brendan Shanahan (knee) didn’t practice and is day to day. … Renney said the possibility of Martin Straka (concussion) playing tonight was “remote,” and that Sean Avery (bruised hand) is improving, but will be “a little while yet.”