Lundqvist's pain in the neck not slowing Rangers

The New York Rangers have proven they can thrive without No 1 goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Now they are finding ways to win when leading scorer Rick Nash is on the bubble, too.

With about one-quarter of the season remaining, the Rangers are in the thick of the fight for first place in the NHL East.

Lundqvist's vascular injury to his neck is much more serious than the neck spasms that forced Nash to miss Tuesday night's 1-0 victory over the Calgary Flames. Lundqvist's absence is being measured in weeks.

Nash returned to the lineup and played 18 minutes in Thursday's 4-3 win over Arizona that completed at three-game home stand.

The Rangers certainly don't want to make a habit of playing without Nash, second in the NHL with 37 goals and first on the club with 58 points, yet they at least know that can get by without him. Tuesday's game was the first that Nash sat out all season.

For the first time since Lundqvist went out of the lineup on Feb 4 - four days after he was struck in the neck by a shot - the Rangers really relied on backup goalie Cam Talbot to deliver a win.

With the slimmest of margins to deal with, Talbot protected the late lead, a task that had recently become troublesome.

"I think we played really well in front of our net," said Talbot, who stopped 40 shots in the win over Arizona. "We didn't give up chances from right in the slot."

Talbot has been sharp in Lundqvist's absence, going 8-1-2 since assuming the top job, but the Rangers' offense clicked in a dozen games ago, recording an average of four goals per game.

Including one started and won by rookie Mackenzie Skapski, New York is 9-1-2 without Lundqvist, one of the game's best goalies.

A lot of that offensive punch has been provided by Nash, who had four goals - including two game-winners - and six points in the six games before a bad night of sleep injured his neck. It wasn't until three hours before the opening faceoff on Tuesday the Rangers learned he couldn't play.

"We thought the neck might loosen up, but we got the call around 4 pm that it wasn't," coach Alain Vigneault said. "Just stiffness. He's had a lot of work on his neck, started taking some medication."

With Lundqvist doing some on-ice work in practice, and facing some low shots, he could be inching toward a return. The original estimate had him sidelined until the middle of March.

The Rangers and crosstown rivals New York Islanders lead the Metropolitan Division with 82 points - but the Rangers have two games in hand. They sit just three points back of Eastern Conference-leading Montreal, so there is no pressure to rush Lundqvist along in his recovery.

"I've got to give the guys a lot of credit. It was probably one of the most complete games we've played this year," Talbot said after beating Arizona.

(China Daily 02/28/2015 page8)