NEW YORK -- For all the stumbles the New York Rangers have had in their up-and-down start to the season, there have also been reminders of how good they can be.
Count Sunday's 5-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens as another reminder.
Yes, the Canadiens were playing the second half of a back-to-back. Yes, they started backup Dustin Tokarski in goal rather than the outstanding Carey Price. Yes, the Rangers had three full days of rest, thanks to Friday's snow-caused postponement in Buffalo.
But the Canadiens also came to New York with the NHL's best record. Sunday's loss was just their sixth in 23 games this season.
Not only that, but the Canadiens came to New York with memories of last spring's Eastern Conference finals, won by the Rangers in six games.
The Rangers, who have responded to last Monday's awful loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning with two of their best performances of the season, are now 9-7-4. Henrik Lundqvist recorded his fourth shutout of the season, the 54th of his NHL career.
MSL 1,000: Martin St. Louis is racing toward the 1,000-point milestone. St. Louis had an assist and a goal in the second period Sunday, giving him 11 points in the past 10 games and 998 in his 18-year NHL career.
St. Louis will be the fifth active player with 1,000 points (Jaromir Jagr, Joe Thornton, Jarome Iginla and Marian Hossa) and the 81st all time.
He fully earned both of his points Sunday. St. Louis made a beautiful backhand pass to set up Derek Stepan for the Rangers' second goal at 0:35 of the second period, then totally outmaneuvered Montreal's Alexei Emelin and scored at 15:33.
Just like last time: The atmosphere wasn't the same. The stakes weren't the same. But there was one significant similarity between Sunday's game and Game 6 of last spring's playoff series. Dominic Moore scored the first goal. In Game 6, it turned out to be the only goal, the one that sent the Rangers into the Stanley Cup Final.
Moore hadn't scored a goal since then, not until Sunday, when he capitalized on a strong play from Tanner Glass. Glass pounced on the rebound of his own shot and got the puck to Moore. It was Glass's first point as a Ranger. It was also the first regular-season point for Jesper Fast, who got the second assist.
Rangers coach Alain Vigneault chose to leave Fast in the lineup Sunday, when he could have instead gone back to Lee Stempniak. Stempniak missed last Wednesday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers with a sore lower back, but he was healthy enough to play Sunday.
One more similarity to Game 6: Tokarski was in net for the Canadiens, this time by choice (Carey Price got the night off on the second of a back-to-back) rather than because of injury.
Public enemy No. 1: Rangers fans were booing Montreal's Brandon Prust even before he ran over Henrik Lundqvist early in the third period. And they were happy with Kevin Klein even before Klein responded by fighting Prust for the second time this season.
More Duke time: Vigneault talked Sunday about giving opportunities to his younger players. That includes 19-year-old Anthony Duclair, who was in the lineup for the third straight game and on the second power-play unit for the second game in a row.
Duclair also had a very nice pass to Carl Hagelin for the Rangers' fourth goal.
Balance it out: The Rangers' five goals Sunday were all at even strength, and each of their four lines scored at least once. The last goal came from Rick Nash, his 14th of the season and the only one his line contributed.
What's next: After playing 14 of their first 20 games at home, the Rangers go on the road for the next two. Wednesday, they'll be in Tampa to face a Lightning team that embarrassed them last week at the Garden. Friday, they're in Philadelphia for the first of a two-day home-and-home with the Flyers.