Quick Hits: The Goaltender Edition

Around the NHL

Henrik Lundqvist of Rangers out 2-3 weeks - By: Dan Rosen: NHL.com

It looks like the Rangers are going to be without The King for some time as the regular season wraps up. The Wings will instead face goaltender Anti Raanta later on today when the Rangers and Wings clash at The Joe. Fortunately for New York, they’ve got themselves a 13 point cushion on a Wildcard spot with 14 games left which should allow Lundqvist to get some much-needed rest without feeling pressured to come back before he’s ready.

In Red Wings Land

Red Wings goaltending delivering; can rest of team follow suit? - By: Helene St. James: Detroit Free Press

Things are starting to turn around in net for the Wings, but we’re still seeking consistency elsewhere throughout the lineup. Even if the playoffs are almost an impossibility at this point, it’d still be nice to see the Wings put together performances like they had against Chicago. There are far too many games where the team’s out of sync and falls behind as a result.

From the article:

“We did a really good job in a lot of areas,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “Because of our pressure both in tracking and in the neutral zone, it gave us a little more time to break the puck out.

“Every game we come out and try to play our very best, and we haven't won enough of them. We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve been right there. We haven't made enough critical plays at critical moments.”

Hopefully the solid goaltending the Wings have between Mrazek and Howard will take some of the pressure off the rest of the team and open some things up. Especially on defense and the transition game. The playoffs might be out of reach, but that doesn’t mean we can’t send The Joe off on a high note and start building towards next season.