NHL scores 2016: Rangers survive another Henrik Lundqvist benching

The Rangers keep going to Antti Raanta, and he keeps delivering at Henrik Lundqvist’s expense.

For the second straight game, the New York Rangers decided to bench Lundqvist. He’s not hurt. He’s not absent for personal reasons.

No, the only reasons coach Alain Vigneault had to point to are Lundqvist’s stats through his last eight starts: a 3-4-1 record with a 3.05 goals-against average and .902 save percentage. Not great.

And not good enough to man the net for a Rangers team facing the first big down stretch of the season.

So Raanta got the nod in Chicago on Friday and finished with one of the best performances of his career, turning aside all 26 Blackhawks’ shots for his first shutout of the season.

Lundqvist isn’t the problem with the Rangers right now. But he’s not the solution, and it will be interesting to see how long Vigneault (who loves playing favorites) will keep riding the hot hand with his all-star goalie on the bench.

Capitals 4, Sabres 1

Blue Jackets 4, Red Wings 1

Blues 4, Devils 1

Wild 3, Oilers 2 (SO)

Rangers 1, Blackhawks 0

Ducks 3, Sharks 2

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1. Columbus won again, ho-hum

I could go on about how impressive the Jackets are but I feel like we do that every night. Tonight, it’s enough to know that they won, they will keep winning, and they won’t stop until they’ve conquered every inch of ice on the planet.

Global warming isn’t the real threat to our glaciers and ice and stuff. That’s a false flag. It’s the Columbus Blue Jackets. This is what they don’t WANT you to know.

Wake up, sheeples.

2. Eric Staal is still good at shootouts

3. The Capitals are starting to gel

Scoring hasn’t been easy to come by for Washington this year, but the Capitals seem to be digging deep enough to overcome it these days. They benefited from calling up rookie Jakub Vrana on Friday, who scored his first goal to win the game in Buffalo.

The Capitals are starting to spread around the wealth on offense; Marcus Johansson added another tally and T.J. Oshie cashed in as well. It’s no wonder they’re starting to climb the Eastern Conference standings again.

It was a somewhat tepid night compared to the chaos on Thursday, so these two minutes in Chicago really stood out.

#shouldhavekept