The King To Rule With An Iron Fist
As a Rangers fan, it’s hard to bad-mouth Henrik Lundqvist. Practically, sacrilegious to criticize any part of his game.
If he lets in a goal, it’s always someone else’s fault. “That was on McDonagh”, “Bad coverage by Staal”, “Nash shouldn’t have turned the puck over, which started that odd-man” and the excuses go an on.
But, the buck has, and always will, stop with #30. Since his rookie year in 2005, he has been everything to the Rangers. He’s the Rangers franchise leader in almost every statistical category as a goalie.
However, the elusive Stanley Cup is the one feat he has yet to garner in his treasure hoard of accomplishments. And, it’s this desire that is probably driving him to do his best every night in goal.
But, his last couple of games have not aided in that quest. We saw him become mortal, and perhaps the decade-long wall he has built in New York is starting to break.
After the loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Lundqvist had this to say in his post game comments on NHL.com:
“All I can say is that right now for us to win games I need to play my absolute best…For us to turn it around, we need everybody to step up, and I need to make the extra save. It just has been a lot of chances in front, and it’s obviously something we’re talking about to try to fix, and I need to come with the extra save. I keep saying it. We’re really trying. We’re working hard.”
Early in the season, that was not the case. He was playing like Lunqvist always has, a pillar of frustration to would-be goal scorers. Making the impossible saves, possible. However, in the past 10 games, the King has not been himself allowing simple goals to get past, while continuing to bail out his teammates with mystifying saves.
The last thing fans want is the Lunqdvist we know and love! The man that got the Rangers back to respectability, and have become annual contenders for the Stanley Cup.
