So you checked even-strength save percentages through Friday’s games and yup, just as suspected, there was Henrik Lundqvist ranked 15th among the 20 netminders who’d played at least 200 minutes with a .920 number.
Too old, obviously.
But then you check out the name bringing up the rear, and why, it is Carey Price at .887.
What does that tell you?
“That it is early and numbers don’t always tell the story,” is what Lundqvist tells The Post that all of the digits tell him. “I try not to overreact to my numbers.”
Lundqvist and the Rangers have spent their time and expended their energy on not overreacting to the 1-5-2 start they toted into Saturday afternoon’s match at the Garden against the Predators. Individually and collectively, the Blueshirts focused on details and on building off the overshadowed good things they had done in successive overtime/shootout losses to the Penguins and Islanders earlier in the week.
“Obviously it is all about winning, but you have to be careful not to let results mislead you about the way you are playing, both personally and as a team,” Lundqvist said following the 4-2 victory in which the Blueshirts managed only five shots over the final two periods until Jimmy Vesey nailed the clinching empty-netter. “I think we’ve done a good job of keeping that in perspective and reacting to this in the right way.”
There’s been a lot of the little girl with the curl in Lundqvist’s game thus far. When he’s been good, he has been very, very good. That’s what he was in this one in protecting a one-goal lead throughout a third period in which the Blueshirts were pinned in their end for most of the 20 minutes and that’s what he was in the final seconds of regulation on Thursday when he made a pair of dazzling stops on Josh Bailey from point-blank range to preserve at least one point.
But when he’s been bad, he’s surrendered some very, very bad ones, such as the Islanders’ 3-1 goal on Thursday when Mathew Barzal somehow beat the King to the far side on a no-angle shot from the left post after cutting toward the net from the boards.
“Oh, bad one, no doubt, but you focus on that, and maybe I focus on that because we lost,” Lundqvist said. “If we won, you would focus on the saves at the end. That’s part of being a goalie. I understand that.
“I make mistakes when we win, too. The game is so fast. I feel that teams are going for it more now than a few years ago. There is more speed and more skill. It’s tough for goalies. Mistakes happen out there. I’m not excusing them, but they happen and you have to learn to evaluate your game properly.”
Lundqvist, 2.99/.907/2-3-2, has been consistent in saying that he has felt good about his game. I asked him if he is sure — and how he can be sure — that he is not fooling himself.
“Because I don’t fool myself and neither does my goalie coach,” Lundqvist said, alluding to Benoit Allaire. “Benny is always honest with me. He always tells me the truth.”
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The truth about Saturday is that the Rangers played a deliberately deliberate game through which they minimized the glaring errors both early and late that had consistently undermined them throughout the first two-plus weeks of the season. They allowed just two shots on three first period penalty kills in their most structured and defense-first operation of the season.
And Lundqvist was prime. The King, composed in the midst of goalmouth scrambles, made a pair of third period game-savers, the first coming on Calle Jarnkrok in front after a sprint to the net from the right with 8:55 to go, and the next by coming across on Ryan Johansen’s sizzling power play one-timer from the left circle with 6:49 remaining and the Blueshirts up by a goal.
“This was different than just a normal game in October,” Lundqvist said. “It’s important to understand the situation. You don’t panic, you recognize the good things you are doing and building blocks you are setting, but you also have to win.”
Which the Rangers did. Measured against what had come before it, neither 2-5-2 nor the goaltender with the 15th best even-strength save percentage in the NHL ever looked quite so good.