NEW YORK — This wasn’t about redemption. It wasn’t even about first place in the East, though that was on the line.
No, this was a Thanksgiving Eve showdown and a measuring stick and a tone-setter between two of the Eastern Conference’s (and indeed, the NHL’s) best at the Garden Wednesday.
The Montreal Canadiens (16-4-2) were in town to play the Rangers (16-3-2), and that brought about a lot of recent memories, including the fact that eight of the last nine regular-season meetings had been shutouts. Seven of those were chalked up by the Habs, and the Rangers’ came from Henrik Lundqvist (against Dustin Tokarski) last season; Cam Talbot also lost what was a meaningless 0-0 game on a Brian Gionta penalty shot in overtime on the final day of 2013-14.