This was a painful reminder of Henrik Lundqvist’s importance

By Larry Brooks

https://nypost.com/2019/01/03/this-was-a-painful-reminder-of-henrik-lundqvists-importance/

January 3, 2019


Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers looks on as Tanner Pearson #14 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with teammates after scoring in the third period at Madison Square Garden on January 2, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)

If the NHL hadn’t called upon Henrik Lundqvist to represent the Rangers at the Jan. 26 All-Star Game in San Jose, Calif., perhaps the Blueshirts could have sent a hologram in his place, because the fact is the franchise’s entire anti-tanking program basically consists of writing the King’s name on the lineup sheet and then getting out of his way.

This was reinforced on Wednesday, when for one of the few times this season, Lundqvist not only was unable to prop up his team, but also cost the Rangers any chance they might have had against a resurgent Penguins team that scored four times on six shots within a second-period stretch of 9:16 before coasting to a 7-2 victory at the Garden.

“The goaltending was not very good,” said the goaltender who was lifted 4:40 into the third period after he had allowed six goals on 18 shots. “It was probably my worst game.”

It was a dreadful performance, for which coach David Quinn took responsibility for coming right back with Lundqvist two nights after a demanding 39-save performance in the Rangers’ 2-1 New Year’s Eve victory at St. Louis and four nights after facing 37 shots in Saturday’s 4-3 victory at Nashville.

There were many mea culpas issued by the coach — “Never should have played … a huge mistake on my part … all on me … I regret it … a bad night for me” — who has ridden Lundqvist hard through the season’s first three months.

A year ago, with Alain Vigneault fighting for his job following a miserable October, Lundqvist started 35 of the first 41 games. Three years ago, Lundqvist started 33 of the first 41. Two years ago, it was only 26 starts in the first half. Now, with a first-year NHL head coach with as much job security as Mike Babcock in Toronto, Quinn has called on Lundqvist to make 30 of the first 40 starts. Do we need mention that the King will turn 37 on March 2?

The heavy workload and the defensive-zone chaos in front of him combined to cut Lundqvist off at the knees during last year’s second half. The Rangers, then and now, cannot survive even an average game from either of their goaltenders. The fact is the Blueshirts are 15-6-2 when Lundqvist or Alexandar Georgiev stops at least 92 percent of the shots he faces in a game, but 2-9-5 when their save percentage drops to or below the NHL-average .909.

Last place overall — and the best pre-lottery odds for drafting projected franchise center Jack Hughes — would and will beckon if the team’s goaltending is even ordinary, much less a debacle like this, in which Lundqvist seemed slow to track the puck and even slower reacting to it. Or if Quinn goes to a goaltending rotation.

The overall team positioning was off-kilter, jam turned into jelly, and Mats Zuccarello even stopped playing because he thought Patric Hornqvist had entered the zone offside seconds before Evgeni Malkin scored in alone at 1:03 of the third to make it 5-1, when an attempted poke check came a second or two too late. Frailties are nothing new for this Rangers team that has won five of the past 17 (5-7-5).

But Lundqvist’s implosion simply served as a reminder that, for better or worse, this Swede is the essential difference between a pre-lottery top-three spot and a middle-of-the-road number of pingpong balls to their credit. This served as a reminder that though there are a number of different ways for a team to win hockey games, there pretty much has been one way this year for the Rangers, whose young players haven’t exactly been busting out all over. In fact, there was one of Da Yoots, Jimmy Vesey, sitting out as a healthy scratch up-front for the first time this year, with another one of them, Tony DeAngelo, a healthy scratch on the back end for the 14th time, while another one, Pavel Buchnevich, kind of wound up on the fourth line.

This will mark Lundqvist’s fifth All-Star appearance, and though he clearly has earned the designation, Chris Kreider might have gotten the call had the Metropolitan Division not needed a goaltender from the Rangers. Kreider leads the Blueshirts with 20 goals.

“Me?” Kreider asked rhetorically. “I never once thought about it. I mean, unless they have a skills competition for guys screening the goalie, I’m not sure what I’d contribute to that.”