BUFFALO — Two of the most important things to the Rangers, now and going forward into the springtime, are staying downstate this week.
There was no trip up here for either goalie Henrik Lundqvist or winger Rick Nash, while the two stayed behind for a good workout at the team’s facility in Westchester while their mates prepared to take on the lowly Sabres at First Niagara Center on Tuesday night.
Lundqvist got some solid work in on Monday as he recovers from neck spasms, coming as a result of his collision with teammate Ryan McDonagh on Thursday in Pittsburgh. He didn’t practice with the full team, but he is eyeing a return either Saturday afternoon in Detroit against the Red Wings or Sunday at home against the Penguins.
In the meantime, backup Antti Raanta will get his third straight start in nets while rookie Magnus Hellberg backs up.
“Each day is definitely good step in the right direction,” said Lundqvist, speaking to the media for the first time since the injury. “The plan is for me to be ready for the weekend.”
This will only be the third game in a row that Lundqvist was unavailable, while Nash has been out since Jan. 22 and was set to miss game No. 20. It’s been a long road back for Nash, as he recovers from a severe bone bruise in his left leg that has kept him out a long longer than anyone first anticipated.
“I think you really have to be smart with it,” Nash said. “Obviously, I want to come back right now. I wanted to come back six weeks ago. But it’s something that you have to make sure it’s safe to come back, with the doctors and the trainers, and come back hopefully with a good return.”
This has been difficult timing for the Blueshirts to be dealing with injuries to two of their biggest pieces, as the trade-deadline acquisition of Eric Staal has thrown a wrench into the forward group, and Lundqvist — the backbone of this team — was playing some of his best hockey of the season when he was hurt.
Of course, the injury itself didn’t come without controversy. After being hit, Lundqvist flipped his goal cage in protest of not getting a stoppage of play. That drew his Pittsburgh counterpart, Marc-Andre Fleury, to call it “baby stuff,” and Lundqvist said he saw the comment but offered little in response.
“Yeah, I heard about it,” Lundqvist said. “All I can say is I was not in a position where I could play the game. I needed a whistle. If the ref is not going to give me one, I’m going to deal with it my way. Could I have done it differently? Absolutely. But at the same time, it was a really tough hit where I was not really thinking straight, I think. But I got the whistle.”
Lundqvist was tested for a concussion, and passed, but his state of mind was at the very least colored by his rage from not getting a stoppage, as well as then getting called for a delay-of-game penalty for tossing his net off its moorings.
“I was not upset when I moved the net. I was upset afterwards because I got a penalty, because I was put in that position,” Lundqvist said. “But I was definitely not upset by the hit or anything. It happens. It was my own guy. So people were talking about I must have been really upset or frustrated, but no, I just needed a break, that’s it.”
Lundqvist didn’t return for the third period of that 4-1 loss, and the spasms kept him from the 3-2 win over the Capitals in Washington on Friday and the 6-4 loss to the Islanders at the Garden on Sunday. A run of 11-2-1 has been partially soured by those two losses in three games, but it was also three games and four nights — showing in the lack of energy at the beginning of Sunday’s rivalry match against the Islanders.
But after this game in Buffalo, the pressure eases up with the team set to be off on Wednesday and practice on Thursday and Friday before heading to Detroit.
Slowly but surely, the Rangers are getting whole again.
“It’s been hard,” Nash said. “But you try to find some positives in all of it, and try to improve my game by watching these guys play so well. Hopefully it doesn’t last much longer.”
