SUNRISE, Fla. — This season has been a sequence of maybes for Henrik Lundqvist.
First, the Rangers’ backbone goaltender had to deal with the NHL season maybe being canceled. Following the four-month lockout, he has had to deal with his team teetering on the brink of maybe not making the playoffs.
Now, with three games remaining — starting tonight against the Panthers — Lundqvist has to deal with the fact maybe there is a chance he won’t get to watch a game from the bench the rest of the season, no matter if it’s over in three games or tumbles on as spring turns to summer.
“We’re in a situation where we’ve been working good as a group and we don’t want to change too much,” Lundqvist said after yesterday’s practice at BB&T Center, the Rangers having gone 8-2-1 in their past 11 games. “Even with the lineup, with the skaters, not only with them, but we’ll see.
“Maybe I’ll get a break this week, but I know I’m going [tonight].”
The Rangers (24-17-4) hold the seventh spot in the East — by virtue of having one more win than the Senators, though both have 52 points — as the ninth-place Jets closed to one point behind after their 2-1 victory over the Sabres last night. With the Rangers traveling from Florida to Carolina for a game with the Hurricanes on Thursday, then wrapping up the season at home against the Devils on Saturday, they won’t face a playoff-qualifying opponent the rest of the way.
But at this point, that is the last thing on anyone’s mind.
“The way we’ve always talked about it, you look at it as an opportunity,” said coach John Tortorella. “We put ourselves in this situation, we were never far gone. We were always treading water.
“They weren’t down when things were going bad, they weren’t great when things were going great. They just stayed flat-lined and went about their business. That’s what gives us an opportunity to keep on fighting here.”
That inconsistency is also what has made Lundqvist such a workhorse.
It was last season, when Lundqvist won the Vezina Trophy and the Rangers made it to within two wins of the Stanley Cup finals, that a winning formula was seemingly found. The franchise netminder played 62 games in that 82-game season, the least he played since his rookie year of 2005-06. It was his sharpness that carried the Blueshirts through all of the offensive doldrums and the tight-checking postseason contests.
But now, in this shortened season, the 31-year-old Lundqvist is set to start his 41st game tonight, what would equate to a pace of 72 starts in a regular 82-game schedule. He has played 2,393 minutes, just 71 minutes short of league-leader Antti Niemi of the Sharks.
“I thought it would be like last year, play three or four, then sit out,” Lundqvist said. “But I don’t mind it. I want to play.”
In conjunction with his massive amount of playing time, among goalies who have started 30 or more games, he has the third-best goals-against average (2.08) and the third-best save percentage (.927).
“I knew going into this season, it was going to be more intense,” Lundqvist said. “With such a long break, I don’t feel that tired. I think [that] definitely helped you to get ready for this, playing a lot, hopefully a couple more months of playing.
“I think it’s important to set the bar high and not be satisfied with getting in. Let’s get in first and then sit down and talk about our chances. But right now, all the focus is on this week and getting it done.”