The Rangers hit their standard of two goals at Madison Square Garden yesterday afternoon against the Stars, and that would have been good enough for a victory had Henrik Lundqvist played up to his standards.
But the King did not come up with an “A” game in yielding three goals on 19 shots, two of them on one-on-one attempts the netminder usually stops in his sleep. Dallas’ Mike Smith made 40 saves at the other end of the ice against a Rangers team that had a 74-33 edge in shots launched at the net, including those that were blocked or missed their target.
Funny, but when it was over no Rangers player stomped around the locker room complaining that his team lost 3-2 because it had been out-goaltended, although Lundqvist griped after Wednesday’s 2-1 victory in Tampa because he was unhappy with the players Tom Renney had on the ice when the Lightning scored at 19:43 of the third to spoil the shutout.
Jaromir Jagr, who was on for that goal-against with linemates Chris Drury and Brandon Dubinsky and who scored at 6:30 of the first yesterday, sure didn’t indict Lundqvist for being beaten at 19:08 by Jussi Jokinen to tie the game 1-1 after the Rangers had dominated the period.
Neither did Jagr seek out a teammate to question the goaltender for being beaten five-hole by Loui Eriksson at 11:54 of the second to tie the score 2-2 when the Rangers had outshot Dallas 25-9, the way Lundqvist sought out Brendan Shanahan after the Lightning game.
“I wasn’t questioning why any individual player was on the ice, but I had a conversation with Brendan about maybe having more defensive players on the ice,” Lundqvist told The Post yesterday. “I haven’t talked to Tom about it. I’m not going to.”
After Wednesday’s game, Renney not only was protective of the goaltender, whose work is the primary reason the Rangers’ record is 13-9-2 rather than 9-13-2, but also took a bullet for Lundqvist, saying that he owed him a better coaching job.
Well, no he didn’t. If on second though Renney believed his late-game tactics had been sub-par, then he owed the Rangers a better coaching job, not any one individual player. What’s next, a public apology to Drury for not providing him with a better finisher on the wing than Marcel Hossa?
Lundqvist is and has been the Rangers’ best and most important player from Day One this year. He’s the most popular player on the team among the fan base, though Sean Avery has butted into the conversation.
But Lundqvist is part of the team, not separate from it.
And a team wins and a team loses.
Lundqvist, who had no chance on Brendan Morrow’s winner for Dallas at 4:04 of the third, took responsibility for the Eriksson goal, saying he was caught in between and indecisive on whether to try a poke check or simply the play the shot.
“You want to be the difference to help the team,” Lundqvist said. “We should have had the lead after two. I don’t know whether it was because of them or because of us that we didn’t.”
The Rangers lost because Dallas went 2-for-3 on the power play and the Rangers went 0-for-6. The Rangers lost because they were out-goaltended.
Though no player said so.
Stars 3 Rangers 2