NEW YORK _ At his post-practice news conference Thursday, Rangers coach David Quinn was asked whether his rebuilding club could take inspiration from a team like Montreal, who finished last season and well out of the playoffs, with 71 points, but had bounced back in a big way this season to occupy the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, entering Friday.
"Absolutely," Quinn had said, going on to make a case that the Rangers were better than their record so far this season. "From the way we've played this year, we kind of feel like we deserve a little bit of a better record, but you look at what Montreal's done, look what the Islanders have done _ a couple changes, a couple tweaks and all of a sudden, your season turns into the season we're having, compared to what the Habs are doing and what the Islanders are doing. So, there is definite optimism on our end it."
The Rangers got an up close look at the Canadiens Friday night at Madison Square Garden, and saw the gap between them and the Habs may not be so big. Joel Armia had a hat trick _ the third goal coming into an empty net _ and Carey Price made 28 saves as the Canadiens held off the Rangers, 4-2.
Vladislav Namestnikov's early goal had given the Rangers the advantage, but the Canadiens took control of the game with goals by Brendan Gallagher and Armia in the second. Armia added his second at 4:29 of the third to make it 3-1. The Rangers pulled to within 3-2 on Brendan Lemieux's first goal as a Ranger, but Armia's empty-netter with 36.7 seconds left finished them.
Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves for the Rangers, who fell to 27-27-10 (64 points). Montreal is 35-23-7 (77 points) and currently in fourth place in the Atlantic Division.
Aside from inserting 21-year-old defenseman Libor Hajek to the lineup in place of Freddie Claesson, Quinn made no other changes to his lineup, meaning that for the fourth game in a row, defenseman Brendan Smith was up on the wing on the fourth line, where he's been relatively effective.
"Smitty's done a good job," Quinn had said of Smith after Thursday's practice. "He's drawing penalties, he's getting breakaways, he's been physical. He's been doing a good job up front."
Namestnikov, meanwhile, has been on something of a tear since breaking his 23-game goal drought with a pair of goals Feb. 15 in Buffalo, and he scored his fourth goal in the last eight games to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 4:41 of the first period when he deflected in a left point shot by Brady Skjei for his ninth goal of the season. Namestnikov had several more chances to score as well; he finished with four shots on goal in the period and six in the first two periods.
But Price was on his game when the Canadiens needed him most, and the goalie robbed Namestnikov on more than one occasion, and the rest of the Rangers, too. And Montreal, which had looked sluggish and uninspired in the first period, tied the game when Gallagher beat Kevin Shattenkirk to the goal crease to deflect in a shot by Tomas Tatar for his 28th goal of the season at 7:27 of the second. Armia put them ahead when he was first to a loose puck in the low slot after a weird bounce off the back boards put it right in the danger zone. Armia got there and coolly chipped it over Lundqvist for his eighth of the season at 14:38.
