King's play bright spot in Rangers loss
[Sunday] night — I’m not sure what the lineup is going to be — but get a few guys back in maybe and play a little better, for sure.” The Blueshirts played without Ryan McDonagh, who missed his fourth straight game with a minor, undisclosed injury, but ha
OTTAWA, Ontario — Consider it a terrific practice, one in which Henrik Lundqvist shined.
In his final regular-season start, the Rangers’ most important player to their postseason hopes was their best player. Lundqvist was the lone positive for a depleted roster that lost 3-1 to the Senators on Saturday afternoon at Canadian Tire Center.
It was an ugly affair, with the Blueshirts resting seven of their regulars, but Lundqvist made 30 saves on some grade-A chances, boding well when the firstround playoff series starts at Montreal, likely on Wednesday.
“It would have been a better feeling if we had been winning a lot lately, and that’s not been the case,” said Lundqvist, who will watch backup Antti Raanta play the regular-season finale Sunday night at the Garden against the Penguins.
“But as a goalie, you have to focus on the things you can control, and give the team a chance to win games, keep it close at times. I feel pretty good. I’m going to work as hard as I can in the next couple days and really fine-tune everything, come to Montreal with a good feeling and try to get a good start in that series. I look forward to it.”
The Rangers (47-28-6) have been locked into the first wild-card spot for a while, and the main goal of the past week has been to get healthy and to get their defensive structure in order. The first part is going along fine, but the Senators (4427-10) were able to take advantage of many sloppy plays with and without the puck while they secured second place in the Atlantic Division and home-ice advantage in the first round.
“It’s tough. There are a lot of guys out right now,” veteran defenseman Dan Girardi said. “We want to win a game, but if we don’t, we want to make sure we’re good structurally. Hopefully