That flu bug that kept Henrik Lundqvist out last night in Phoenix is no better today, and John Tortorella said all it took was a brief visit with Lundqvist this morning to know that Chad Johnson was going to take his second straight start tonight, against the Colorado Avalanche.
Lundqvist was feeling so fevered and so crummy last night that he retreated to the dressing room after the first period because of the chills he was experiencing sitting so close to the ice. In fact, Tortorella said in his pregame comments moments ago that there is no way Lundqvist will play tonight.
“Johnny’s going to go,” Tortorella said. “If it’s a struggle tonight he’s going to fight through it, because Hank doesn’t feel well at all.”
Asked about an emergency scenario, Tortorella just said that Lundqvist would not play. The Rangers have not summoned any goaltender from Hartford to fly out West and back up Johnson - what with Steve Valiquette (finger) injured in Hartford and the Wolf Pack summoning Mikka Wiikman from Charlotte to fill out their goaltending ranks, apparently that was enough to preclude the parent club from bringing Matt Zaba here so that the Rangers would have a backup who is actually able to play. Makes no sense to me - if you have only one goaltender, you need to get a second out here - but there it is all the same.
“It’s just too much,” Tortorella said. “We’ve lost Valiquette down there, there’s quite a number of things that have gone on with our goaltending here in the last few days.”
On Johnson, who was shaky in the first period last night in Phoenix (sorry, Glendale), then terrific in the second and underworked in the third, the coach said: “I think he’s going to play better. I think it was a struggle for him and our team in that first period, I think both of them kind of worked on one another, but I like the way he settled down. Is he perfect? Absolutely not. This is experience that he’s getting here. Did we foresee that he was going to be in this situation? No, and he didn’t either. So I think he’s handled himself very well. The way he battled and the way he controlled himself through last night’s game, and gave us an opportunity to at least come back, I think he’s going to be better right from the get-go.
Ales Kotalik and Donald Brashear are once again the healthy scratches, both of them for the eighth time in nine games. “Same group of guys; lines may change a little bit,” the coach said. “We’ll see as the game starts. I want to see what their lineup looks like.”
Time to head upstairs and see for myself.
COOL!