It’s the adaptation of styles that has made Devils’ 40-year-old goalie Martin Brodeur age so well — and also has made his opposing netminder last night, the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist, admire him so much.
“I think Marty’s ability to adapt and be open-minded about the game is a large part of the reason he’s stayed in the league for so long and at such a high level,” Lundqvist told The Post before the Rangers’ 3-0 win last night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at Madison Square Garden.
“The game changes, I think it’s changed a lot from my first year in the league [2005-06], so I can only imagine how many changes there have been since Marty has been playing [since 1993-94].”
Lundqvist said he began to watch NHL goaltenders for pointers when he was “16 or 17 years old” in Sweden.
“I looked to see what I could learn and then I’ve tried to be as open-minded as possible since I’ve been here,” said Lundqvist, who has allowed two goals or fewer now in 11 of his 15 playoff starts.
“My first year in the NHL, there wasn’t as much emphasis on going to the front and crowding the net to score goals as there is now, so I’ve had to change my style a little bit to adjust to that,” he said.
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The Devils’ ferocious forecheck continued to pester, as the Rangers spent the first two periods hardly able to run a reasonable breakout from their own zone.
“We have to be aware of that,” Ryan McDonagh said. “We felt it pretty good there in the second, but we stayed with it and I thought we handled it really well in the third.”
It was that same forecheck that caused so many problems for the Flyers in the second round, a series in which the Devils lost the first game and swept the next four.
When asked if they changed anything in the third, when they scored all three of their goals, Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi said, “Not really. We just wanted to move the puck quick, get it moving around their forwards and catch them pinching or get a guy caught.”
Rangers forward Artem Anisimov played another assertive game, continuing his strong play since joining the line centered by Brain Boyle with Ruslan Fedotenko on the other wing.
“He’s been doing pretty good,” said coach John Tortorella, not one for post-game affections. “He’s playing left wing on that line [and] he’s done a fairly good job there.”
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The Rangers recalled six players yesterday who will not skate with the team but on their own. They are goalie Cam Talbot; defensemen Dylan McIlrath and Tim Erixon; and forwards Casey Wellman, Kris Newbury and J.T. Miller. Miller was the team’s first-round pick in 2011, and McIlrath was the first-round pick in 2010. Both joined the Connecticut Whale after their junior seasons. The Whale was eliminated in the second round of the AHL playoffs.
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Devils assistant coach and 2000 Cup-winning head coach Larry Robinson vehemently ripped a report suggesting he is interested in joining the new Montreal regime, saying that comments attributed to an agent, whom he called a friend, were five years old and that there has been no such contact or interest. Robinson won seven Cups as a Habs’ immortal defenseman . . . The Devils have won their last four trips to the semifinals after losing their first two in 1988 (Bruins) and 1994 (Rangers). The Devils stand 16-9 in last four semis, and 22-17 in all six.