Henrik Lundqvist ready for Canadiens after five-day layoff

When Henrik Lundqvist skates onto the ice Sunday night at Madison Square Garden to face the high-flying Canadiens, he will have last played six days ago.

"You try to look at it in a positive way," said Lundqvist, who started last Monday night in a 5-1 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. "I'm a little anxious to get back in, but it's been a good couple days in practice, and there will be a lot of games coming up."

The layoff was due to backup Cam Talbot starting on Wednesday against the Flyers and the weather-related postponement of Friday's game in Buffalo, which he was supposed to start.

"This is good for him to get a couple days in between games," Alain Vigneault said. "He's played a lot of minutes, more than I originally anticipated, but the schedule was all right."

Lundqvist has started 15 of 19 games for the Rangers (8-7-4) and has a 7-5-3 record, a 2.68 GAA and a .910 save percentage. In the first 19 games last season, he was 6-8-0, 2.41 and .919.

On Oct. 25, the Rangers lost, 3-1, in Montreal. Carl Hagelin was the lone scorer. Lundqvist turned away 27 shots in that game, his sixth straight start. The Rangers fired 35 shots at Carey Price, who started Saturday night against the Bruins and will be replaced Sunday night by backup Dustin Tokarski. Tokarski last faced the Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals, when the Blueshirts won Game 6, 1-0, to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

The extra rest also might benefit Derek Stepan. The center is almost fully recovered from a fractured fibula and has three goals and five assists in the last seven games against Montreal, including the playoffs.

Stepan, who has played seven straight games, producing a goal and five assists, said that after his fifth game (in Pittsburgh), "I felt I could finally go back into the weight room. I'm building up strength slowly. I expected it to be this way; there's still a lot to my game to get even sharper."

In the Rangers' 2-0 win over the Flyers on Wednesday, Stepan said, "We had four-on- two or three-on-two, I lost the handle and almost gave it right back to them . . . The breakaway pass that [Dan] Boyle gave me, it was a hard backhand catch. That stuff will come back. It just takes time."

Notes & quotes: Ryan McDonagh, who suffered a separated shoulder when he was checked into the boards by Winnipeg's Evander Kane on Nov. 1, skated before practice. Vigneault said the defenseman will practice this week in Tampa . . . Rookie winger Anthony Duclair, who Vigneault said is "improving with every practice and every opportunity he gets to play," will be on the third line with Kevin Hayes and Hagelin . . . Lee Stempniak should return to the lineup after missing the Flyers game with lower back tightness.