Henrik the Katt

- I’ve been around for awhile, but fortunately not long enough to say that I saw Emile Francis tend goal for the Rangers. I don’t know how he got the nickname of “The Cat,” whether it was reflection on his goaltending style or perhaps because he drank a lot of milk and purred if you rubbed his neck.

But Henryk Lundqvist, solid in the nets for the Blueshirts’ 2-1 win over the Pens on Thursday night, is reminding me of the first Rangers coach I ever remember (OK, I’m old enough for that) with his play. Crouched low, like a cat, or perhaps we should say, katt in honor of his Swedish roots, waiting to pounce, Lundqvist stopped 35 Penguins shots to outduel the Penguins’ young goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with Katt-like quickness, flashing his glove, his blocker, and his pads and skates, all with equal effectiveness and flash. He seems to know when to gobble up the rebounds, and when to kick the puck clear. He protects the net less economically in terms of movement than Kevin Weekes, more of the stoic, positional type, and thus projects the kind of visual panache that has made him the favorite of the fans.

Fleury was perhaps the second best player on the ice. His circus save on Darius Kasparaitus was followed by a minute of sustained Pittsburgh pressure that led to the tying goal early in the second, and he kept his team in the game in the third, as the home team revved up their play to protect their lead.

Face-offs were a topic of discussion during the off days, as the team had slackened off in that category of late. But Martin Straka, taking his only draw of the game after Nylander was tossed from the circle, battled Mark Recchi, the Pens’ best player last night, to a draw on the draw. Nylander however was able to sweep the puck back to Roszival, who passed it across to Marek Malik. If you think this guy isn’t blessed these days, take a look at how the ice parted biblically as he skated in with a clear look and an absolute clear path before beating Fleury with a wrist shot for the winning goal.

On the other hand, we saw perhaps the worst face-off effort in NHL history. With the Blueshirts briefly down two men, Dominic Moore, who continued to struggle on draws, was tossed, and Roszival stepped in to face Mario Lemiuex. Roszival made like a little point guard in a jump ball against a seven foot center, making hardly an effort at all before dropping back into position. A true defensive defenseman indeed, Roszival logged a team leading 24:51 of ice time, and was one of the keys in the Rangers’ holding Sid the Kid and Mario to a single shot apiece; that’s pretty impressive.

- Team effort in compensating for the absence of Jed Ortmeyer, as no less than 14 Rangers registered at least one blocked shot.

- I’ve been calling for Kondratiev to get a shot on the power play point, and he scored from there last night. However, a shot deflecting off of two different Penguins isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

- Energetic game for the Betts-Ward-Niemenen line. Ward throws in some nifty moves from time to time, as he did early in the second, faking Brooks Orpik out of his uniform pants and cutting towards the net for a shot. Betts outhustled Orpik to the puck in the third, and despite being hooked got the puck over to Rucinsky for a shot, and drew a key penalty with just eight minutes left.

- A funny phenomenon I’ve noticed so far this year at the Garden is that despite the team’s success, the fans are still hooked on stars of the past. Walk through the building and notice what jerseys people are wearing and you’d think it was still 1994. 11….2…..9…..35…..those are the numbers that still dominate. (One recent night, I saw two Walt Tkaczuks.) But I did see one Lundqvist jersey last night, and no doubt we’ll be seeing more of those. When I see someone wearing a Marek Malik sweater, I’ll know that this team has truly arrived.