Henrik Lundqvist has been asked to win much more important games during his Broadway run that commenced a dozen years ago, but never has the assignment been quite as meaningful in October as it will be Tuesday when the Golden Knights make their Garden debut.
“You take a deep breath and try to gather as much energy and focus as you can moving into [the] game,” said Lundqvist, who spent the last two matches on the bench as Ondrej Pavelec’s backup. “I think the key is to not try to do too much, whether it’s me or anyone else on the team.
“I think everyone understands their role. Mine is to stop pucks and try to make a difference when the team needs me.”
All things being equal, they are not. The Rangers most certainly do need more from Kevin Shattenkirk and from Mats Zuccarello and from J.T. Miller and from Brady Skjei and, well, you can check off the box adjacent to everyone’s name on the roster. But they need Lundqvist to do what he’s been able to do much more often than not throughout his career; that is to tilt the game the Rangers’ way even if he has to do way more than his share.
And that means eliminating the inexplicable bad goal or so per game that has undermined the King, who has had three full practices plus a pair of game-day morning skates since his 4-1 defeat to the Sharks on Oct. 23 in which to work with goaltending coach Benoit Allaire.
“They’ve worked extremely hard the last three or four days,” said coach Alain Vigneault, who survived a 3-11-1 start with Montreal in 1999-2000 to finish 35-34-13, albeit out of the playoffs. “They’ve been working on a couple of technical things that Benny addressed with Hank, and he’s going to be ready.
“Hank is a true professional and a hard worker. He’s going to be ready.”
Lundqvist’s five-on-five .910 save percentage (per naturalstattrick.com) that ranks 16th among the 23 goaltenders with at least 300 minutes obviously is not good enough. But before you conclude this indicates that he is finished because of his advanced age of 35, be aware that 30-year-old Carey Price ranks 22nd at .891, 28-year-old Frederik Andersen ranks 21st at .892, 23-year-old Matt Murray ranks 19th at .900 and 30-year-old Ben Bishop ranks 18th at .902.
You know, too, that the King has allowed three goals on first shots and three on third shots behind a Rangers team that treats the first five minutes of games as if they’re optional exercises. If Lundqvist has one job in this one, it will be to save his teammates from themselves if that becomes necessary over the first four minutes through which the Blueshirts have allowed a sum of six goals.
“We’re just not in the right frame of mind going into games,” said Marc Staal, whose team has trailed by at least two goals in the first period in five of the first dozen games. “It’s obviously a mental thing.”
And while it might be hyperbole to call the 13th game of the season a must-win, at 3-7-2 the Rangers are nearing a point of no return, perhaps for the coach, perhaps for a player.
“Anytime you’re struggling, questions are going to be raised,” Staal said. “We have to start winning hockey games.”
To that end, it appears as if Vigneault is reconstructing the Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich first line that was intact the first six games but produced only one even-strength goal. This move — in concert with reassembling the Rick Nash-Kevin Hayes-Zuccarello and Jimmy Vesey-David Desharnais-Miller units that were together for the Oct. 13, 3-1 defeat in Columbus — is likely designed to get more ice time for Buchnevich, whose five-on-five average ice time of 9:49 per leads only Michael Grabner’s 9:18 among forwards who have been on the active roster since the season commenced.
Lundqvist talked about how one of the best characteristics of last year’s team was its ability to find ways to win even when it didn’t play all that well.
“A lot of that is confidence,” Lundqvist said. “Everyone in this room, all of us, we just have to focus on our own game and figure out how we can help the group.
“You’re not going to get anything for free. We know that. We need everyone right now.”
The Rangers need Lundqvist to be at his best.