Henrik Lundqvist never has been so egotistical to think luck was not a part of his success.
So on Wednesday afternoon, the Rangers goalie very easily deflected a verbal shot fired at him by Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban, who implied a lot of Lundqvist’s success over the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals — the Rangers are up 2-0 with Game 3 coming Thursday night at the Garden — came by chance.
“You definitely need [luck],” Lundqvist said after practice. “It’s a fast game. There are so many things you can’t control as a goalie, how the game is played, the situations that occur in front of you. But you have to believe in yourself and try to help your team as much as you can.”
After Monday night’s 3-1 Rangers win at Bell Centre, Subban asked rhetorically about Lundqvist, “Is he playing well?”
He then answered his own question: “Yes, but some of it is luck.
“If we keep getting those looks, we’ll put some of them in the net,” Subban said. “I shot a couple that were tipped and hit his shoulder and he didn’t even see it. We’re getting pucks to the net and bodies in front, we’re just not burying chances.”
A new statistic that can be used to predict how lucky a team might be — not just a goalie — actually backs up Subban’s claim the Blueshirts have been fortunate. By combining a team’s save percentage and shooting percentage, the result is called PDO.
The Rangers’ postseason PDO for five-on-five in close situations — the best way to judge these things — is a rather outrageous 107.0. The postseason average of all 16 teams is 99.18. The Canadiens are in second place behind the Rangers at 104.7 in postseason PDO.
With outstanding goaltending — Lundqvist is a candidate to win the Conn Smythe Trophy for postseason MVP — to go along with efficient scoring, well, then can’t the Rangers just be a good team?
“We all try to do our part, and my part is to stop the puck,” said Lundqvist, whose postseason save percentage (.934) is first in the league. “When the team needs me, I try to stop the puck. But there are other moments when guys step up and make big plays and score big goals. It’s all of us.
“To have success more than just a few games, you’re going to need that.”