It’s no secret that this season has been Henrik Lundqvist’s toughest with the New York Rangers.
Throughout his time with the New York Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist has only known what it’s like to be in a playoff hunt. This season, however, the Rangers find themselves on the outside looking in and it has been hard for the 36-year-old veteran.
In an interview with Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Lundqvist talked about how he’s handling the season.
“For me, the rest of the year is about wanting to be able to feel good about myself and about us. I don’t want to look at the big picture and break everything down. I’m not looking ahead to next year. I’m not thinking about whether to play in the World Championships.
I just want to take it day by day and play my best for this team. That’s the challenge. When it’s over, there will be time to reflect about what happened and look ahead. But not so much now.”
As for whether or not Lundqvist wants to continue on a team that most likely won’t compete for a playoff spot in the 2018-19 season, Lundqvist reiterated that he wants to be a Ranger. In the 2013-14 season, Lundqvist signed a seven-year contract extension which includes a no-movement clause.
Lundqvist has been the Rangers MVP this season as he has kept them in every game despite a lackluster defensive effort in front of him.
Over his last four games, he has had to face 150 shots, including back-to-back games where he had to make 50 saves. Because of that, he has tried to adjust his game so he can do more for a team that has struggled in their end.
“When you know you’re going to get maybe 30 scoring chances against, you wind up trying to do too much even though you have it in your mind not to.”
When asked if he had any issues with head coach Alain Vigneault, Lundqvist said that he understood where Vigneault was coming from in the games he’s been pulled from lately.
“When I look back on my season, the first half I felt as good as I had in years. I felt really sharp. But then as a team when we started to go left and right, my game wasn’t as consistent for a couple of weeks. So he definitely had a point about that. Beyond that, we can leave it there.”
Lundqvist is going to continue to try and be positive and just take it “day-by-day.” And who knows, the Rangers are just nine points out with 12 games to play. Anything can happen.
