OTTAWA — It was the emotion of this train-wreck season coming to a head in one look, one glaring stare down the bench from Henrik Lundqvist as he was on his way to the locker room, yanked once again well before the final horn sounded.
The Rangers netminder and franchise bedrock was pulled for the third time in the past eight games as his team lost its third in a row, a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the lowly Senators on Saturday afternoon. Coach Alain Vigneault gave Lundqvist the hook after he allowed the fifth goal in 27 shots, replacing him with rookie Brandon Halverson as the Blueshirts were down 5-2 with 12:33 remaining in the third period.
Vigneault made it clear he did it largely because the Rangers (27-27-5) are playing the Flyers in a Garden matinee Sunday at noon, and he wanted to give Lundqvist a breather before starting again in that one. But when Lundqvist was asked if he thought he should have come out after the Senators (21-27-9) had their way in front of his net all afternoon, his answer was succinct and to the point.
“I want to play,” Lundqvist said with a disheartened shrug.
But as tough as it can be to watch the Rangers continue to make deadly mistakes all over the ice, it must be tougher for Lundqvist to stomach it. This is the first time in his 13-year career his front office has made a public declaration that they are going to be sellers leading up to the Feb. 26 trade deadline, and it initially sparked the players to two straight wins.
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But it has been back to reality with the three losses that have followed, and now the Rangers are five points out of the second wild-card spot with 23 games remaining.
“You can look at the goalie and say he needs to make more saves — but I see a couple plays where I can be better,” Lundqvist said. “I have stretches every year where I feel like I can play better, looking for a better feeling. But I feel like I’m tracking the puck pretty good, and one-on-one, I feel pretty good. But clearly it’s not enough. I’m giving up too many goals. It’s just not enough right now.”
What the Blueshirts are really trying to guard against is allowing a pervasive negativity take over their locker room. They continue to mix mistakes with resolve, but the former is winning far more often than the latter.
“We’re trying to keep it upbeat in here, we’re trying to keep it positive, but when we have performances like that first period, it’s tough to do,” said Rick Nash, who whittles away the time before he is traded. “Some negativity creeps in the room. Just with guys down, guys just not bringing their best. It’s just something we have to try to fix.”
That first period saw the Rangers give up a goal on the first shot of the game yet again, this one from Mark Stone just 63 seconds in to mark the 14th time this season Lundqvist has allowed a goal on one of the first three shots. Johnny Oduya made it 2-0 at 12:07 of the first, and it was ugly.
“I wish I had an answer for you guys,” Nash said, “because we talk about it before every single game — to come out strong, keep it simple, have a great start.”
Michael Grabner scored the first of his two goals to make it 2-1, and scored later in the third to increase his team lead to 25 — also helping to increase his trade value. Mika Zibanejad added a power-play goal that made it 3-2 at 14:31 of the second period, but old friend Derick Brassard scored before the end of the second to make it 4-2, before goals from Thomas Chabot and Magnus Paajarvi finished things off in the third.
“It’s a tough situation right now where I think we’re doing a lot of good things, but I also feel like we’re beating ourselves almost every game,” Lundqvist said. “There are plays where we’re there, but we’re not. And until we fix that, we’re not going to win a lot of games.”