It’s hard to imagine a New York Rangers season that isn’t over in February these days.
This is a team that can barely put two winning games in a row, never mind a string that would put them into a playoff hunt.
On Monday night, Henrik Lundqvist proved why the franchise is looking to get younger in the crease. One game after getting his first shut out in two seasons Lundqvist could not make it out of the second intermission before being replaced by Alexander Georgiev.
The Dallas Stars visited Manhattan and toyed with an inept Rangers squad with Joe Pavelski striking for two power play goals in the first period, with 16 seconds between each goal, in a 5-3 win.
Anton Khudobin made 33 saves to get the win.
Stephen Johns scored his first goal in two years.
“You know what makes it pretty special is my parents were here tonight,” Johns said as he fought back tears. “Throughout this whole process it wasn’t just me going through [a tough time]. As parents they want to help, and then to be here and see that, I know my dad was for sure crying. I’m pretty excited to go see them and give them both a big hug.”
The only notable event for the Rangers was their power play that went 3-for-3.
Pavel Buchnevich, Brent Howden scored in the first period, and Brendan Lemieux added strike in the third period purely for cosmetic purposes.
Blake Comeau and Corey Perry also scored for the Stars.
“It looked like we just really got deflated after we gave up that third goal. It’s one goal,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “You’re still in the game. And then we got sloppy. It really was a tale of two games for us. I really liked what we were doing up until that third goal and then we really got away from all the things we had been doing and need to do if we’re going to have a chance.”
What is the purpose of a bench boss if not to keep a team engaged after a big goal against?
[WATCH: All Stars vs. Rangers highlights]
Lundqvist made 11 saves and surrendered four goals in 40 minutes.
“We made some mistakes and unfortunately I wasn’t able to clean that up a couple times there,” Lundqvist said. “I thought we did a lot of good things, but they just managed to cash in on a couple of mistakes that we made. If we’re able to get away with those it’s a different game.”
Georgiev made five saves in the third period.
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