Struggling Rangers look to get well vs. Knights (Oct 31, 2017)
NEW YORK -- When the Vegas Golden Knights take the ice at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, they likely will do so with their fourth starting goaltender of the season.
When the New York Rangers take the same ice, they will do so in search of their fourth win of the season.
Both the Knights and Rangers have had their struggles this season, but one has struggled with goaltending health while the other has struggled with playing consistently over a full game.
The Knights (8-2-0) took only their second loss Monday night, a 6-3 thumping at the hands of the New York Islanders in Brooklyn. Oscar Dansk, Vegas' third starting goaltender, sustained a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return. Fourth-string goaltender Maxime Lagace looked overmatched, allowing four goals on 11 shots in relief.
In less than a month, the expansion team has lost Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion), Malcom Subban (lower body) and Dansk to injuries. Now it's possible that the 24-year-old Lagace will make his first NHL start at MSG against the Rangers. If Lagace doesn't start, it could be Dylan Ferguson, who is currently playing with Kamloops of the WHL, a junior hockey league.
Not even coach Gerard Gallant knew the plan following the Knights' loss to the Islanders on Monday.
"I don't know -- seriously," Gallant said. "(General manager) George (McPhee) and (assistant general manager) Kelly (McCrimmon) are probably working on that right now. I don't know who's coming in, I really don't. I'll know in the near future."
"You've got to be ready, that's your job," Lagace said to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "When I saw Oscar get hurt, I knew I was going in, and I tried to focus.
"It wasn't a perfect night. It wasn't the start I wanted. But I'll regroup and get ready for (Tuesday)."
The Rangers (3-7-2), meanwhile, have yet to win consecutive games and are coming off another loss in which they allowed an early goal and could not recover. The Canadiens jumped to a 3-0 lead Saturday in Montreal and outshot the Rangers 19-2 in the first period, although the Rangers made it a game before losing 5-4.
At this point in the season, who is to blame for the poor start when the team had high expectations?
"There is no excuse -- we were embarrassed there in the first," McDonagh said to the New York Post. "When someone questions your effort level and compete, it's not a good feeling. You want to prove it to yourself and prove it as a group that that's not what we're about, that's not acceptable, that's not who we are."
Ondrej Pavelec was in net for a second straight game, as Rangers coach Alain Vigneault wanted to ride the hot hand after his strong game against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night. But after Pavelec allowed five goals to the Canadiens, it is likely Henrik Lundqvist will be the starting goalie against the Knights.
Lundqvist has fared poorly, with a 3.11 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage. As Lundqvist goes, so usually go the Rangers, and he hopes two games off help him find his form.
"My game is all about decisions," Lundqvist said to the New York Post. "I don't rely on size or speed. I rely on good decisions. So that's something I'm working on in practice and just need to bring it in games, all the time.
"I think you see a lot of games now in the league where there are blowouts and just different type of hockey right now. As a goalie, if you're not on top of it every night, you're not going to have good results. You really have to push yourself to play on top of things to have results. I think it keeps you very honest of where you're at with your game all the time."
If Lundqvist doesn't make enough good decisions against a Knights team playing the second half of a back-to-back with a fourth-string goaltender, the Rangers may have more problems than they realized.
