A couple of thoughts as we close out the year…

Not a terrible way to spend a Sunday night, huh? All you guys and girls who jumped down my throat about NHL vs. NFL were rewarded for your faith in the game tonight. That was some night. (Not that I told you to forgo hockey for a day, but whatever.)

Here’s a few things from the locker room:

— Renney wasn’t happy with the way the game had unfolded. Because of the penalties and because he matched Betts and co. with Kovalev’s line, the top skill guys hadn’t logged much ice time. He decided to change it late, rolling two lines for most of the third period. “They said, ‘OK, coach is putting this directly on our shoulders.’ They love that,” he said.

— Chris Drury said this felt like a playoff game right from the anthems. “It kind of felt like a playoff game, how intense the crowd was right from the anthems,” he said.  “Our bench was pretty excited right throughout the third.” No wonder he played so well, scoring the tying goal with five minutes left and assisting on the winner.

Sam noted to me via text message during the third period that Drury was destroying Montreal on faceoffs.  He was 15 of 21…but that was nothing. Betts was 9 of 11. For the game, the team was 41 of 60 (68%). Not bad.

— Brendan Shanahan had the quote of the night, that you feel like “the coolest kid in school for a day” after scoring a game-winner.

Safe to say he’d be a senior.

Lineup change…Petr Prucha is a late scratch. As you know, he was slashed in the third period last night. Marcel Hossa is in Prucha’s place.

UPDATE: 7:45 p.m. —

1. Another nice period by the Rangers, particularly the top line. Like Gomez mentioned on Friday, there’s Straka digging the puck out, freeing up some room for Gomez to make a play. … Of course, that’s exactly what he did, hitting Dan Girardi for his seventh goal of the season. (Did you ever expect Girardi would have 7 G before ‘08? I didn’t.) The assist extended Gomez’s career-high point streak to 12 games.

2. Terrible giveaway by Marek Malik, who had done a great job along with Paul Mara up until two minutes left in the period. Mara in particular did a tremendous job against Kovalev, but Malik gave it all away. His TO led to a goal that tied the game. Until…

3. Gomez is fast, huh? I think all the haters are going to have to give the guy a break. He’s making plays alongside Jagr, which was the goal when the Blueshirts gave him that boatload of $$$. … For those who didn’t see it, Gomez got possession on the fly on the other side of the red line, then found an opening to hit a cutting Jagr for the captain’s 11th goal of the season. (Stat disclosure: Jagr, after having no goals in 10 games, now has one in his last three, which is his longest stretch of the season.)

4. I’m sorry you guys aren’t sitting in my seat. Sean Avery was just jawing at Huet right before the period ended, which could lead to something later. He was absolutely relentless.

I’m not going to have much else tonight because I’m on a tight deadline, so if I don’t check in I’ll talk to you after the game.

Lundqvist is obviously back in goal, but don’t expect any other major changes. I’ll update when it’s official.

Here are some notes I dug up for your pregame enjoyment:

— Rangers were 2-6-2 in 10 games before winning their last two. Jaromir Jagr had just six assists (and no goals) in those 10 games, but he has six points (3-3) in the last two games.

— Rangers are 1-3-1 in the second game of a back-to-back this season. Their only win was an OT shootout victory against Philly.

— Henrik Lundqvist has given up just five goals in the four previous games after a night off. Two of those four games were shutout victories. (3-1, 1.25 GAA). Good sign maybe?

— This will be Marcel Hossa’s eighth straight game off

— Interesting note here from someone in the press room. There are six Canadian teams and the Rangers will play five of them in a span of eight days. Something tells me this doesn’t make your boy Sean Avery very happy…Oh, Canada!

As you can see from the early nature of my post, there wasn’t much a morning skate this morning. It was quick and sparsely attended.

I didn’t get a chance to talk to Renney, so there’s nothing to report. The overnight flight from Toronto at midnight probably didn’t make for much action this morning, but I’ll have a full pregame report later from the Garden.

In the meantime, watch some football…

When the Rangers are on my watch I don’t even need to see the games. They win anyway. When I covered them last April they won. When I was around for the Atlanta series they swept. When I was there for Buffalo they nearly knocked off the beast of the East. I’d like to think I’m the Sean Avery of the Rangers beat, only with less scar tissue and without a handful of Hollywood starlets on speed dial.

Seriously though, I was out tonight covering basketball while the Blueshirts were on the ice in Toronto. What happens…well, six goals, including two by Petr Prucha and one by Blair Betts? Eh…what? At this rate, Joey Kocur may end up on the scoresheet vs. Montreal.

Because I was out, I Tivo-ed the game. I just finished watching it and I realized: dutiful reader, stf, was dead on. You guys have absolutely nothing to complain about, so it’s been quiet around here. Drury made one of those plays Hockey Gods make; Jagr just destroyed it on the PP; Shanahan unleashed his deadly one-timer; Prucha had an impact after Renney gave him precious PP minutes. All was good on the Rangers front.

Heck, even Straka and Roszival shot the puck!

I’ll be back in the morning after the skate. It’s optional, but I’ll see what’s going on before heading down to the Garden. Talk to you then.

Not surprisingly since the Rangers are on the front end of a back-to-back and since Stephen Valiquette fared well in the team’s last visit to Toronto, the back-up gets the nod again in tonight’s Tucker-Avery grudge match.

Also, Brandon Dubinsky is questionable because of the flu, opening the possibility of Jason Strudwick stepping in at wing. Who would take Dubinsky’s place at center is the question, although wings Martin Straka, Sean Avery, and even Ryan Hollweg, Petr Prucha and Ryan Callahan all have experience playing the middle.

All this by way of Steve Zipay, who is back from vacation

If you want to check out Jagr’s thoughts on Sean Avery, give a read to my story today. You can find it here.

Just as we were done with Jagr, Avery came through the room punching a text into his iPhone. When I went up to him, he stopped to talk for a couple minutes…then as we spoke Jagr yelled across the room to Avery telling him about all the compliments he’d just paid him. Funny stuff.

Because it is apparently our obligation as reporters to throw pure gasoline on the Avery vs. Toronto feud, I will have more on the Rangers resident instigator in tomorrow’s paper and at LoHud. I’ll hold today’s nuggets on Avery until then, so instead I offer you Jaromir Jagr and Scott Gomez’s insight into why they hope they are clicking better this time around.

My questioning was triggered on the heels of Wednesday’s game. Gomez was talking about how well he and Jagr played and he made a point of praising Marty Straka. I thought it was interesting, so I asked Gomez and Jagr about Straka today.

“I think it kind of goes to Marty. We’ve had Marty on the line and he kind of brings another element,” Gomez said. “The guy just works so hard, he does so much in the D zone, so much offensively. At the beginning of the year we didn’t have that. The credit goes to him. I wish I could say it a different way, but he’s been the reason.”

I asked what Straka does specifically and Gomez said: “He does everything. He gets open, he digs the pucks out, he creates offensively. When you see a guy on your line constantly working like that and bringing it, you gotta go. I think the success of our line is because of him.”

Jagr, who has played with Straka forever and who we know has always supported his countryman, almost seemed surprised to hear what Gomez had to say. The captain has always respected Straka so much and he isn’t surprised at how much he can help.

“I’ve played with Marty for a long time,” Jagr said. “He’s got enough patience, enough skill, to hold the puck when we need him to.”

Other items of note:

— Brendan Shanahan didn’t practice today. He had a sore hamstring and sat out for precautionary reasons. Renney expects Shanny to play tomorrow in Toronto.

— Predictably, Nigel Dawes was on a morning train to Hartford. (I actually don’t know how he got to the home of insurance, but I do know he’s been shipped back to the AHL.) Renney said Dawes can be sent back and forth, which made him an obvious candidate for a demotion, and that he’s currently a little limited because he is a scoring LW still working on his skills as a penalty killer. However, the coach assured that Dawes’ time is near: “It really is only a matter of time,” Renney said. “Whether he secures it in the next couple weeks, months or this year, Nigel Dawes is going to play for the New York Rangers.”

Renney said Dawes kills penalties in Hartford now, so presumably that is with the goal of expanding his game.

— Don’t expect much in the way of lineup changes tomorrow night. The only exception is Marcel Hossa, who Renney said is “a consideration for us” because of his defensive play and size. If Hossa plays, I wouldn’t expect to see him anywhere but the fourth line.

— Do yourself a favor and read tomorrow’s story in the paper or online. Should be a fun read. Basically, Jagr said some really nice things about Avery’s skill vs. his role as instigator and then teased him about it when Avery walked by. Only in a hockey dressing room…

Sean Avery on going back to Toronto:

“I never enjoy playing in Toronto really. Why? I don’t enjoy hockey-obsessed Canadians. The exchange rate is not very good right now. And it’s going to cost me a lot of money for tickets for people I don’t even like. How’s that for a list?”

Pretty good, actually.