Rangers' Lundqvist targets weekend return to lineup

NEW YORK -- New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist is targeting a return to the lineup this weekend. The Rangers play at the Boston Bruins on Saturday and at home against the Washington Capitals on Sunday.

"That's my goal, yeah," Lundqvist said Tuesday morning. "I think I need at least one more or two more skates just to work on my timing, but I feel close."

Lundqvist, who hasn't played since Feb. 2 because of a vascular injury to his neck, participated in the morning skate at Madison Square Garden prior to the game against the Los Angeles Kings (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN). It was his first full practice since he was taken out of the lineup.

Lundqvist was cleared to resume practicing last week but missed the Rangers' only full practice since then to be with his wife for the birth of their second child Friday. The Rangers' only practice before this weekend will be Wednesday.

New York is 17-3-3 without Lundqvist. Cam Talbot is 15-3-3 with a 2.12 goals-against average and .930 save percentage in 21 games since Lundqvist went down.

"If you ask me, I wanted to play last week right away when they cleared me. But you have to be realistic about it too," Lundqvist said. "When I come back I want to make sure I'm, if not 100 percent to my top form, I'm at least close to it. And then you just have to work on your details as you move on."

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said he's been consulting with goalie coach Benoit Allaire on Lundqvist's progress.

"In [Allaire's] opinion, for [Lundqvist] to find his rhythm and his level of play, he doesn't think it will be a very long time," Vigneault said.

That's partly because Lundqvist has been skating on his own and taking primarily low shots from Allaire for the past four weeks. Lundqvist said his conditioning is not a concern, but the mental hurdle of returning to the lineup and facing game action is something he'll have to get over.

"I'm not going to feel perfect before the first game; you have to go out there and play and kind of work yourself back to 100 percent," Lundqvist said. "What I can do is work really hard on conditioning and I feel I'm really close on that part. The timing this week, we have just one or two practices so I'll do what I can to work on just being in the right position in different situations. I feel like the past four weeks have been really good. The fact that I've been able to skate and stay in shape, that's going to help me and speed up this process."

Rangers players were happy to see Lundqvist back on the ice with them. Center Derick Brassard hugged him after Lundqvist made a save on him early in the morning skate. A few players then razzed Lundqvist after he allowed a goal to forward Mats Zuccarello.

Lundqvist faced shots through screens and shots from the Rangers' second power-play unit. He had to move laterally quite often to make saves. Dominic Moore put one upstairs on Lundqvist and he made the save.

He took up one of the nets for the duration of the morning skate, leaving backup Mackenzie Skapski to watch most of the time.

"When he made a couple of good saves there the guys were trying harder," Brassard said.

Rick Nash said Lundqvist didn't look like a goalie who hasn't played in almost two months.

"He looked same-old," Nash said. "He looked like he didn't miss a beat when I was shooting on him. He's our leader, our best player. It's tough to miss a guy like that so it's exciting to have him back."

Brassard said there was a hesitancy on the players' part to shoot high on Lundqvist early in the practice because nobody wanted to be the one who did something out of line.

"Some guys I think were a little scared. They said, 'I'm not going high today,'" Lundqvist said. "I'm fine. They can go high and hard and I'm not worried about it. With each practice I feel more and more comfortable. The first practice I had last week with just a couple coaches shooting it was a little uncomfortable. But with each day that goes by you get more and more comfortable with high shots and with the speed and everything. I feel I'm pretty close to being ready."

Follow Dan Rosen on Twitter at: @drosennhl