BOSTON — It might have come as a surprise with how much Henrik Lundqvist has played this early into the season. But according to the Rangers franchise backbone in net, this was all premeditated over the summer.
“I feel like the more I play, the more relaxed I get,” Lundqvist said after getting both games of a back-to-back sweep, making 33 saves en route to a 3-2 overtime win over the Bruins on Saturday. “It’s something we really talked about over the summer. Playing back-to-backs and playing more games just to help me to be in the right mindset.
“Physically, it’s more challenging. But mentally, it’s easier, I find. The biggest part to the game is the mental aspect.”
Coach Alain Vigneault explained his decision to play Lundqvist by saying this was a “big game,” just as he did when Lundqvist got both games of last weekend’s back-to-back, in Washington on Friday then home to the Devils on Saturday. Lundqvist has now started 28 of the team’s first 33 games.
But after Lundqvist made 33 saves in a 4-2 win over the Kings on Friday, he said he was “tired” and was asked if he wanted to play again on Saturday. His response?
“I said, ‘I want to go,’” Lundqvist said. “It’s a fun challenge to have in front of you.”
It also helps the 35-year-old Swede has outstanding numbers when starting both games of a back-to-back. He has done it now 81 times in his career, and in the second game he is 53-21-7, with a 2.02 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage, to go along with nine shutouts. Just so happens he has now won all of the previous eight times he’s done it, with a 1.73 goals-against average and .948 percentage in that span.
During this weekend, he stopped 66 of 70 shots and got his team four big points.
“Two games where I felt like there was a lot of pressure at times,” Lundqvist said. “I knew playing this game would be challenging physically with a short time of recovery. But I saw it as a challenge too to make a difference.”
Vigneault originally said backup Ondrej Pavelec was going to play two games during the stretch of six games in nine nights that ended on Saturday. He only started on Monday in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Stars, but that was after an unexpected start in Pittsburgh on Dec. 5 (before this stretch) when Lundqvist came down with the flu.
“We’re definitely going to need Pavs here as we move forward,” Vigneault said. “But I thought for tonight, we needed to do this.”
The power play scored for the second straight game after going the five previous without a goal.
With Mika Zibanejad (concussion) still sidelined, the lineup remained the same for the eighth straight game, meaning defenseman Steven Kampfer was the only healthy scratch.