MONTREAL – This is one city and one hockey rink that hardly have been fit for The King.
When the Rangers and Canadiens, both equidistant between fourth-place home-ice advantage and 10th-place ignominy, meet here tonight, Henrik Lundqvist will have some forgetting to do.
He’ll have to forget Dec. 4, when he gave up four goals in the first 23:35 of a 6-2 defeat. He’ll have to forget last Feb. 19, when he allowed five in a 6-5 shootout defeat in which his team had led 5-0 at the 5:03 mark of the second period.
The King will have to forget, in fact, the last four games he’s played here against the Canadiens during which he allowed 18 goals on 114 shots in 218 minutes, numbers that equate to a 5.05 GAA and .842 save percentage. This of course is exclusive of the Jan. 25 All-Star Game here in which he allowed six goals on 21 shots in his one period of work.
What, do the fine folks at Customs demand that Lundqvist turn in his crown in order to be allowed to cross the border?
“I can’t say that I’m not aware of the places where I haven’t played well, or the ones where I have, but once the game starts, it’s all fresh, and none of that matters,” Lundqvist said yesterday before the Rangers’ flight here.
“I know my record in Montreal, but it isn’t something that is going to bother me in my preparation for the game. It’s not going to be a factor.
“The last couple of games there, we’ve allowed ourselves to be dragged into the atmosphere. It’s such a loud crowd and emotional game, but we can’t get caught up in any of that. We have to keep our focus.”
John Tortorella wasn’t speaking to Lundqvist’s situation when he talked yesterday about a team needing to have a short memory, especially at this time of year.
“You need to have a short memory whether you win or lose because you have another one coming up the next night,” said Tortorella, whose team is 5-2 in its last seven and will have 11 to play after tonight.
“I don’t believe in [the cliché] that it’s playoff hockey already. We know where we’re. We’re trying to take each day, each night and do the best we can.”
*
Two of Nik Antropov’s three goals in six games as a Ranger have come off corner-picking wrist shots from the circles, yet the winger yesterday suggested his passing was his greatest asset in Toronto. “I know I have a pretty hard shot,” No. 80 said. “All my coaches have wanted me to use it more.”