Goaltending controversy? Not quite. But following Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the Red Wings in the season finale, it is at least worthy of mention that the Blueshirts went 7-1 in Antti Raanta’s last eight starts of the season while going 4-6-3 in Henrik Lundqvist’s final 13 outings.
“I’m feeling really good. After those tough moments in the past, I think I grew up a lot mentally,” Raanta said after concluding his first Rangers season with the victory. “Mentally, I think I am a lot stronger than I was even when the season was starting.”
The 26-year-old Finn was acquired from the Blackhawks at the June draft hours after Cam Talbot had been traded to the Oilers. This was after Raanta had been dropped from Chicago’s postseason roster as backup to Corey Crawford in favor of Scott Darling and had publicly and clumsily expressed his disappointment at the development.
“You start feeling better and better playing with these guys. You know already what they are doing,” said Raanta, who finished with an 11-4-2 record as a starter and 7-1 following a Feb. 12 overtime meltdown against the Kings, after which he was despondent in the postgame room. “It’s so much easier to go into the net.”
Eric Staal finished his 83rd game of the year — 63 with the Hurricanes — in civilian attire, having sat out the third period following a collision off a faceoff with 1:55 remaining in the second period in which the center seemed to catch a Jesper Fast knee/thigh on the side of his head. But Staal is expected to be ready for the playoff opener.
“We just took him off for precautionary reasons,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “He should be fine.”
Keith Yandle, who owns the second-longest consecutive-games-played streak among defensemen in NHL history, completed his seventh straight full season without a missing a game. Yandle has played in 551 straight, dating to March 26, 2009.
Jay Bouwmeester holds the NHL record for defensemen at 737 games. The Ducks’ Andrew Cogliano holds the longest active streak at 702 games entering the weekend. Doug Jarvis holds the all-time mark at 964 games.
J.T. Miller was the only Ranger other than Yandle to play in all 82 games.
