MONTREAL — Before Henrik Lundqvist sat and watched another game from the bench, the Rangers franchise netminder had one of the easiest-to-understand explanations in describing his own personal game, and a small glimpse into why the Rangers franchise goaltender has struggled at the start of this season.
“My game is all about decisions,” Lundqvist said Saturday morning at Bell Center before he watched his understudy Ondrej Pavelec in nets for an ugly 5-4 loss to the Canadiens. “I don’t rely on size or speed. I rely on good decisions. So that’s something I’m working on in practice and just need to bring it in games, all the time.”
Lundqvist has had ample time to practice, and it’s something he has been through before. Just this past season, he sat for a career-high four straight games while then-backup Antti Raanta carried the load. But that four-game stretch had Lundqvist not play a game for eight days, while this one would already stretch to seven days, even if coach Alain Vigneault decided to play him in the next game, Tuesday at the Garden against the red-hot Vegas Golden Knights.
“I feel like the good things have been good. A few errors I made last couple games, I just need to cut it down a little bit,” said Lundqvist, who had a .900 save percentage and a 3.11 goals-against average. “It’s a fast game, and all it takes is a bad decision here or there and that’s the difference.”
Lundqvist also made the point that the league has also gotten faster and more skilled, with teams taking more chances to create offense. That’s not exactly a recipe for goaltending success.
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“I think you see a lot of games now in the league where there are blowouts and just different type of hockey right now,” Lundqvist said. “As a goalie, if you’re not on top of it every night, you’re not going to have good results. You really have to push yourself to play on top of things to have results. I think it keeps you very honest of where you’re at with your game all the time.”
Vigneault remained tied with Jacques Lemaire with 617 career coaching wins, good for 13th on the all-time list. Lemaire, a fellow Quebecois, coached the Devils to their first Stanley Cup title in 1995, and also spent time as the headman for the Canadiens and Wild.
When asked by the French-speaking media about his place on the list, Vigneault said it would be something he looks back on gratefully at the end of his career, but right now he was focused on the game.
The Rangers kept the same lineup, meaning defenseman Steven Kampfer was a healthy scratch for the eighth straight game and forward Paul Carey was out for the seventh straight. They both skated with Lundqvist on Saturday morning for almost an hour.