As the New York Rangers came through the first eight weeks of the season with the league’s best record, even their own local media were attributing much of that success to “luck”.
If that good fortune includes having Henrik Lundqvist as your goaltender, then it is most certainly true.
The 33-year-old Swede is leading the NHL in goals against average (1.74), save percentage (94.6 per cent) and wins (12). He has faced the most shots of any goalie and saved the most.
“He’s our best player, there’s no doubt,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told the New York Times. “He’s our highest-paid player, also.”
Ah, yes. With the seven-year, US$59.5 million (Dh218.5m) contract he signed before the 2014/15 season, which makes him the highest paid goalie in the league, comes high expectations.
Lundqvist is delivering.
The way the Rangers have been playing, it would appear that they are deliberately leaning on their superstar goalie to play like a super hero.
The Rangers are succeeding despite permitting more shots per game than they are producing, which is not a strategy teams develop on purpose. They are 28th in the league in shot attempt percentage (46 per cent).
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They also are last in the league in power-play opportunities.
What they have been doing well is lighting the lamp at a high rate on the shots they produce, about one goal per nine attempts.
It is a rate that puts them on par with the likes of the Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens, teams awash in sharpshooting, offensive-minded players.
Meanwhile, the man the Rangers expect to carry the biggest offensive load, Rick Nash, has only six goals. If pucks finding their way into opponents’ nets has been the “luck” portion, the play of Lundqvist is totally on par with his reputation, summed up in his nickname, “King Henrik”.
Now in his 11th season, he also has earned the right to call his teammates out for their deficiencies.
After a recent overtime win over the Florida Panthers, in which the Rangers failed to protect a late, two-goal lead, Lundqvist refused to celebrate.
“I’m still annoyed,” he told reporters. “We have to smarten up.”
His teammates, of course, celebrated Lundqvist, who saved them by stopping a penalty shot in the final two minutes of the game and standing tall during the hectic three-on-three overtime. He finished with 39 saves.
Lundqvist was picked in the seventh round of the 2000 draft.
Since debuting with the Rangers in 2005, he has more wins (351), more games (637), the best goals against average (2.24), the most shutouts (57), and the best save percentage (. 922) of any of his contemporaries with at least 350 games.
He also won the Vezina Trophy in 2012 and led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup final in 2014.
Getting his name on the cup would be his crowning achievement. Vigneault reportedly asked Lundqvist to come to camp in mid-season form this year, and teammates have noticed an intensity they did not always see in previous Octobers and Novembers.
“He seems to be in play-off mode,” defenceman Ryan McDonagh said.
Not coincidentally, the Rangers have taken every advantage.
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