Lundqvist

Five Rangers players are on the ballot for selection as starters in the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, looking to star…

The Rangers have had two long days to think about what went wrong on Saturday night, to replay the avalanche of goals that buried them in the third period in Toronto. Forty-eight long hours of nothing but kicking themselves. Right?

The Rangers, after a day off yesterday, were back in the office today for a real treat - watching video of Saturday’s Maple Meltdown - before hitting the ice for practice. Predictably, and understandably, the theme today was to put the five-goals-in-5:21 fiasco out of everyone’s memory and move on to the next game, which also is just one of 82, and so on. Of course, whether they say it or not, whatever frustrations linger they’ll be trying to take out on their buddies the Islanders, who have their own frustrations to deal with after suffering their own meltdown on Saturday, too - surrendering four third-period goals to the Habs in a 5-4 Coliseum loss that dropped the Isles to 2-7-1, though they host Columbus tonight.

Anyway, before we get to line changes and the chances Nigel Dawes will be a scratch soon, here’s what they’re saying after digesting Saturday’s game, with some heartburn:

Chris Drury: “It’s just a loss in a long season. You’re not going to win ‘em all, you’re going to have bad spells, bad periods, bad seven minutes for us. You gotta let go, it’s over, it’s done.”

Wade Redden: “I think guys are pretty confident in each other, we’re not going to let one loss get into our heads too much. We know where we need to get better. It’ll be good to get back home, and great to get back winning.”

Tom Renney: “You turn the page on it as quick as you can, obviously. We’ve had the good fortune of a decent start, which in one sense is really good, and in another sense, you gotta be careful of. … You know, it bothered them a lot, and it should. Heck, that WAS a meltdown. But we know exactly why it happened, completely forgettable, and as has been the case at least three times this year, we beat ourselves.”

Steve Valiquette: “After the game, I saw everyone going around the room saying, ‘You okay?’ ‘Yeah, I’m fine. You okay?’ ‘Yeah, fine.’ And really, we are fine. We’re not in peewee anymore. We’re big boys, we know how to handle this.”

In the ever-changing forward lines, Renney took a look today at Markus Naslund back with his center from the start of the season, Scott Gomez, with Ryan Callahan on the right. Drury centered Dawes and, lo and behold, Petr Prucha. That would leave out Dan Fritsche and Patrick Rissmiller.

As far as Dawes, whose nice goal against Detroit makes up pretty much the entirety of his 2008-09 highlight reel to this point, Renney said he liked the scoring chances the 23-year-old winger was starting to get, and the fact that he’s getting pucks to the net (he had five shot Thursday against Atlanta, none in an invisible game on Saturday). But the coach also said the time is coming when Dawes might watch a game or two, as he did earlier in the season:

“Nigel’s a goal-scorer, he scores the pure stuff - I think that’s in him,” Renney said. “When it doesn’t translate into goals, though, when you’re looking at people like that you ask yourself, ‘Is his contribution what we need?’ As with most people, you’ve got to hang in with them and give them the opportunity to work it. He’s no different.”

But he’s not prepared to sit Dawes yet? “Not yet. It’s an option later on, whenever later is.”

That clear it up for ya? In any case, it’s on to the Isles’ first Garden visit tomorrow night. And for those equating what happened on Saturday with what happened on Feb. 19 in Montreal, when the Rangers blew a 5-0 lead and lost 6-5 in a shootout, I will say that the Montreal game was far more of a stunner, not even close - blowing a 5-0 lead and a 2-0 lead aren’t even comparable, even if they got a point out of Montreal. But following that meltdown, the Rangers won their next four games and were 7-0-1 in the next eight. (The only blemish? A shootout loss to the Isles at the Garden.) Different group this year, yes, so maybe we’ll learn something about them tomorrow night.

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Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was recognized by the National Hockey League on Monday as the league’s No. 2 Star for the month of October.

Lundqvist led all NHL goaltenders in victories and backsto

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Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was recognized by the National Hockey League on Monday as the league’s No. 2 Star for the month of October.

Lundqvist led all NHL goaltenders in victories and backsto

…

THE 5-2 Ranger loss in Toronto on Saturday - in which the Maple Leafs scored four times on five shots within 3:30 and five times on seven shots within a span of 5:21 in the final 7:24 - is an aberration over which not to obsess, given Steve…

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