While not yet official, the New York Daily News reported early this morning that the Rangers have a deal in place to sign Henrik Lundqvist to a 6 year deal worth somewhere around $6.5 million a year. The official deal could be announced as soon as today, but most likely not until tomorrow.

Good move by the Rangers getting this done now, as maybe it will lift something off of the shoulders of their number one netminder. He’s been shaky recently, but all good goalies go through tough stretches. Hopefully this lets him focus a little more on goaltending from here on out.

The Rangers resume practice today after having the last two days off. Not much happening, but I’ll be back if something breaks.

Also, good to see some Islanders coverage from IslesEnforcer. We were heavily covering the Rangers, with just a little Islander and Devil coverage for a while. I have found it tough to sit down to watch either team due to other things going on, so hopefully we can get back on track.

I also have to agree with most of Derek’s picks for awards. Head over to his page linked a few posts down and check it out. My only question on that is, where’s Jaromir Jagr in the Hart Trophy race? Not the top candidate? Wait, bad joke.