The Rangers have become frustratingly familiar with the in-game snowball effect, watching as small mistakes compound and turn into losses. It happened in the 4-2 defeat to the Maple Leafs on Friday night in the Garden, and happened in extreme measure during the 5-4 loss to the Canadiens in Montreal on Saturday, when they gave up three goals in 62 seconds to lose their third-period lead.
“Just things going wrong,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said of the team’s implosion Saturday night. “Extremely fast.”
The Blueshirts had Sunday off, and will return to work with a practice Monday and a Garden match against the Stars on Tuesday. Having now lost the first two games coming out of their five-day “bye week,” the hope for them is that these implosions don’t carry over from game to game.
What could have saved them over this lost weekend — both literally and figuratively — was Lundqvist, but the franchise bedrock was not quite heroic.
After what was an admittedly difficult first half of the season, Lundqvist was hoping to reset and refocus coming out of the bye. But he looked out of sorts in allowing a few awkward goals to the Maple Leafs, and was not able to make the game-saving stops against the Canadiens after his understudy, Antti Raanta, left with an unidentified “lower-body injury” after a spotless first period.
So the Blueshirts will likely look to Lundqvist during the next five games before the All-Star break, if for no other reason than they might not have another option. Depending on the extent of Raanta’s injury, the most likely candidate to be called up to serve as a backup would be untested Swedish behemoth, 6-foot-5 Magnus Hellberg, with just two games of NHL experience.
Either way, the Rangers will go as Lundqvist goes. He knows that, and the team knows that. Now they just have to find a way to get him going, which won’t happen if he’s not playing often.
“I’m just trying hard to be positive right now,” an exasperated Lundqvist said after he stopped only 17-of-22 shots against the Canadiens and 40-of-49 over the past two games. The 34-year-old has allowed four or more goals in five of his past seven games, and his season save percentage has now dropped to .907, compared with his career mark of .920.
“Obviously the last two games here, it has not been bouncing the right way,” Lundqvist said. “You feel tired when you sit here and you’re looking for a good feeling. But take a day off [Sunday] and prepare for the next game.”
Of course, it’s not all on the goalie. What has led to these games quickly unraveling has been sloppy execution and the old bugaboo of defending in front of the net.
“Look at the goals,” captain Ryan McDonagh said Saturday night. “Deflections, guys alone in front, and you can’t allow a team to have too many of those looks.”
The defense is missing Marc Staal, who hasn’t played since Jan. 3 while dealing with another bout of post-concussion syndrome. The group up front did get Rick Nash and Pavel Buchnevich back, and it was good for the Rangers to see that Buchnevich could play in back-to-back games after the plan was for him to sit one of those out until he started to feel comfortable again. He had been sidelined with his back injury since Nov. 12.
Another boost will come soon when top-six center Mika Zibanejad is ready to return from his broken leg, suffered Nov. 20. An indication that could happen soon, was the team placing forward Marek Hrivik on waivers Sunday, having not played the previous two games after a run of 16 straight since his recall Dec. 5.
The Rangers are hardly in a free fall, still 28-14-1, still in the first wild-card position and still eight points clear of the Hurricanes, the first team out of the playoffs. But the past two games, things have gotten out of hand quickly. This is how the second half of their schedule has started, and it’s not something they want to see turn into a trend.
“It’s going to sting,” McDonagh said of the loss in Montreal. “We’ve got a long couple days here before we get another crack at it.”