Merry Christmas!

The Pundit has been AWOL the last few games, however, the combinations of the season, family, birthday, dialysis and such kept me too busy to post. I believe that the Rangers hit rock bottom with their 5-3 loss to the Islanders. It doesn't get any worse than that.

However, the Rangers have rebounded from that debacle with two big wins over the Wild and the Maple Leafs behind rookie goaltender Cam Talbot, who allowed one goal per game. The Maple Leaf game went into a shootout, which never should have occurred, due to a no whistle by the ref on a puck lying under Talbot, that was eventually tucked in by Nazem Kadri to send the game into OT. Talbot righted the wrong and got revenge by stopping Kadri in the shootout to win the game.

The Rangers only goal in the game was scored by J.T. Miller off of a beautiful feed by Chris Kreider. Zuccarello and Stepan scored in the shootout. The Rangers ended the nine game home stand at 3-4-2 and now are at 18-18-2, back to that .500 number again. They hit the road for five games starting with Washington on Friday and then go to Tampa Bay, Florida, Pittsburgh and Toronto. We should see if the comeback is serious or make believe.

Lundqvist should be back in the nets and hopefully the rest has cleared his head. Of course it would help if the Rangers play in front of him the way they play in front of Talbot. As I have stated many times before, the Rangers will only go as far as Lundqvist takes them. Talbot is good, but unless he is the second coming of Ken Dryden, the Rangers are dead without a prime time Henrik Lundqvist.

But that's hockey and today is Christmas Eve. It's family time. Whether you are a believer or not, it's time for family and friends. So enjoy it. From the Ranger Pundit and jb we wish all out there in Rangerland a very Merry Christmas.

ICINGS: With another loss Friday the T/Birds closed out the first half with a 6-7 record. The second half starts 1/15/14. Hopefully the team will be at 100%. My grandson also plays in a house league at The Rinx and last Sunday he gave Granpa a big birthday present. He scored three goals in a 6-2 win. Thanks Nicholas, you made my year.

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