Antti Raanta starts again for Rangers

NEW YORK --Goalie Antti Raanta will make his fourth consecutive start for the New York Rangers when they play the Chicago Blackhawks at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports, MSG2, CSN-CH, NHL.TV). Henrik Lundqvist will serve as the backup for the fourth consecutive game for the first time in his career.
"It's as simple as [Raanta] deserves to play," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.

Raanta has an active shutout streak of 151:04. He had back-to-back shutout wins against the Blackhawks at United Center on Friday (26 saves) and the New Jersey Devils at the Garden on Sunday (19 saves). He also made 17 saves in a 2-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets at MTS Centre last Thursday.
Raanta was named the NHL's Second Star of the Week on Monday after going 3-0 with a 0.33 goals-against average and .984 save percentage in his past three starts. He is 8-1-0 with a 1.65 GAA and .943 save percentage in 11 starts this season.
"I would say when you start the season there is always a big picture and like we've talked many times you'd like your goaltenders to play a certain amount of games," Vigneault said, "but there does come times in the season, like this one here, where one guy is playing real well and he's playing."
Lundqvist hasn't played since he allowed four goals on 32 shots in a 4-2 loss against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center on Dec. 6. He is 5-5-1 with .910 save percentage and 2.90 GAA in his past 11 appearances, starting with a relief appearance against the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 8, when he allowed two goals on six shots in 6:19. Raanta had to be removed from that game because of a possible concussion but returned to relieve Lundqvist.
Lundqvist is 12-8-1 with a .912 save percentage and 2.55 GAA in 21 appearances (20 starts) this season.
"Mental aspect is huge," Lundqvist said. "Obviously being a goalie how you approach it, how you feel, it's very important how you deal with that. I said it the other day, you don't want to overreact. In the last stretch, 5-5-1, can I do better? Yes. Is it terrible? I don't think so. But Antti is playing really well. The whole situation you get a lot of questions about it and you start to analyze it a little bit. I'm not going to overthink it. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to be prepared when I get my next start."
Raanta said just because he's starting his fourth consecutive game doesn't mean he or anyone else should view this as a changing of the order on the Rangers' goaltending depth chart.
"It's pretty special if you can rob games from Hank, but that's the main thing always, what you try to be, the backup tries to always be there when he gets a chance to play and of course you try to prove everybody that you can also do the job," Raanta said. "It's been great to get this many games in a row but still everybody knows who is the No. 1 guy here still. He's been awesome to me the whole time since I've been here. His work ethic is just getting higher and higher when he's not getting the games. It's awesome to see how he prepares. He makes it like a challenge to come back strong. I just try to do my thing and whenever Hank needs my help I try to help him, but he has been great support for me all the time."
Lundqvist has been getting to work on his game with goalie coach Benoit Allaire during this sustained stretch as the backup. The Rangers have not had a full practice since last Wednesday, but Lundqvist has been participating in every morning skate, even going on the ice in the optional skates with Allaire and the skaters who are the healthy scratches.
"Confidence is very important," Lundqvist said. "You just need to believe in what you're doing, believe in the things you've been doing for the last 14-15 years, last year and even the last couple of weeks. Believe you're on the right track when you work on certain things. That's what you try to do."
Vigneault tried to stress that New York's goaltending situation should not be seen as a big story or a big deal even though it is the first time a healthy Lundqvist has sat for this many games in a row in his career. He previously sat for three straight games from Dec. 22-27, 2013 before helping the Rangers reach the Stanley Cup Final that season.
"Hank is all about the team and he's with Antti right now and how he's playing," Vigneault said. "He's been in this game a long time. My first year [2013-14 season] this sort of happened in December, he went three games without playing. When we were making that playoff push to the [Stanley Cup] Final I don't remember anybody bringing up the fact that Hank had missed three games in December."