Thank Goodness For Marty Biron

Usually when it’s the day of a Rangers game, and we all are scouring through Twitter to find out who the scratches will be, perhaps even what the lines will be, all of us usually have the same main objective. Is Henrik playing? When we find out Biron is in net, there is usually this mild collective groan that oozes out in all the tweets, retweets and direct messages. Somebody may point out the upcoming schedule, 4 games in 6 nights, there is usually a “Torts had that planned all along” tweet, but let’s face it, when Biron is in net, we all feel a bit uneasy.

The erratic goal scoring these 2011-12 New York Rangers have provided all season along has made us all very sensitive to the fact that we can’t give up any goals. None.  And we all just feel a little more confident when we have the best goalie in the whole damn world in net, the guy with the 1.80 GAA and six shutouts. Henrik Lundqvist is having a season for the ages. He is having the goalie version of Wayne Gretzky’s 92 goal season. And, thank goodness we have Martin Biron to give him the rest he needs allowing him to stay sharp. Every Rangers fan should be thanking their lucky stars we have Biron and demanding GM Glen Sather signs him to a contract extension right now and not let him enter the summer as an Unrestricted Free Agent. He is an integral part to this goaltending machine.

Last season, although we all hoped for more, the Rangers season was virtually doomed when Biron went down with a broken collarbone, hit in practice by a Derek Stepan shot. The Rangers, desperate to make the playoffs, had to play Lundqvist the last 18 games and didn’t really have a lot left in the tank in the 5 game playoff loss to the Washington Capitals. Not that the Rangers provided much scoring either, 8 goals in 5 playoff games isn’t going to cut it. But when I read ESPN’s John Buccigross list his top 50 players in the NHL and only puts Lundqvist at #27, because “he hasn’t done anything in the playoffs” it makes me cringe. Every season it seems as if the Rangers are battling until the last day to make the playoffs and ultimately Henrik is overworked. Blaming Lundqvist for the Rangers not having any success in the playoffs is about as dumb an observation as anyone can make anywhere. No Buccigross, Jeff Skinner is not a better hockey player than Henrik Lundqvist.

Anyway, everything is working out brilliantly thus far this season. Lundqvist is not being overworked, Biron is actually a pretty damn good goalie when he gets the call, and the Rangers don’t look like they’ll have to scramble at all in the final weeks of the season to make the playoffs. In fact, we are the favorite to end up first in the Eastern Conference with home ice throughout the playoffs. We want Henrik Lundqvist as ready, rested and healthy as possible for that long Cup run that hopefully will end triumphantly sometime in mid June. Thank goodness for Martin Biron, you’ll never see me tweet it’s a bad idea to give him a start, no matter how bad our offense looks. Re-sign him now Glen.