By BOBBY BISCUIT

The Rangers picked up their third win in a row on Monday, the second consecutive in a shootout victory. Henrik Lundqvist was AMAZING yet again. He has some obnoxious streak of allowing no more then 2 goals in all but 1 or 2 of his starts. All this amounts to……he is the best goalie in the league right now… period. That said with the Rangers current record I believe they should consider sitting him again sometime in the near future to avoid a Martin Brodeur situation. No, not a torn bicep, a case of the, wow I’ve played an extra 10-12 completely unecessary games every year of my career and with that long of a career….it really adds up and takes some mileage off the car. But I digress….

Speaking of sitting, Teflon Tom Renney had Nikolai Zherdev and Aaron Voros stapled to the bench for a majority of the 3rd period on Monday to send a message to each of them. Zherdev later returned to score the only goal in the shootout and when announced as the 2nd star of the game, stayed in the locker room as he did not feel he earned that merit in a game he was benched by his coach.

Look for a rebound from both of those players as the visiting Canucks come to the Garden tonight to face their former captain Markus Naslund. Vancouver is off to what I believe is a suprising start this year. I didn’t expect much from them, but they deploy an extreme defensive style built from the net out surrounding their captain and elite goaltender Roberto Luongo and it has worked to the tune of 22 points and the division lead in the Northwest.

RIDICULOUS STAT: The Canucks have allowed 4 regulation goals in 7 games.

EQUATION FOR IDIOTS: Luongo + above stat + Lundqvist + above Lundqvist stat / garden ice from last game = UNDER total is 5 but it shouldn’t matter….whoever scores first may win, the only variable will be special teams and discipline.

FEATURED YOUNGSTER: The Sedin TWINS Daniel and Henrik are a good young PAIR (settle down Dean) but they have established themselves in the league so I would like to feature a young talented American player named Ryan Kesler. He is more of a five tool player then the usual super skilled speedster featured in this section of the preview. He plays both ends well and even drops the mitts when needed. That does not mean his game lacks any offensive sizzle as he does have 12 points already this season.

GO RANGERS

BB