Henrik Lundqvist had to laugh at the question, otherwise he might have cried.
“It’s so long ago that I played there,” the Rangers goalie said, smiling coyly and thinking about the Bell Centre in Montreal, “that I really don’t remember.”
As the Eastern Conference final is set to begin with Lundqvist leading his Rangers into that raucous building stuffed with 21,273 crazed fans to face the Canadiens on Saturday afternoon for Game 1, the hope for him is that memories can be made anew. Because the ones that already exist from his personal House of Horrors are pockmarked with defeats so disastrous the 2012 Vezina Trophy winner has not even played a game in that building since Jan. 15, 2012, sitting in favor of a backup for the past four.
Lundqvist last won there on March 17, 2009, a 4-3 shootout victory, and in his four starts since then is 0-3-1 with a 6.99 goals-against average and .862 save percentage.
“I just look forward to going there,” Lundqvist said after Thursday’s optional practice in Westchester, one he participated in after a day of rest following his phenomenal 35-save performance in Tuesday’s 2-1 Game 7 win of their second-round series against the Penguins. “It’s the conference final, in Montreal, that’s special. I’m excited about that.
“As a goalie, when you analyze your game, you have to be careful,” he said. “Yeah, there have been some different type of games up there, but there have been some solid ones, as well. As much as you focus on yourself, it’s a team game. You have to remember that, winning and losing.”
That surely is the case, but what is just as true is that often a series with this high stakes ends up boiling down to the most important players, and at the other end of the ice is one of arguably two or three men on the planet that can neutralize the advantage that Lundqvist gives the Rangers.
And if memory is the underlying theme here, then Canadiens goalie Carey Price has a rather rich one to lean on, coming from the Gold Medal game in the Olympics this past February in Sochi, when he backstopped the Canadian team to the win over none other than Lundqvist and his fellow Swedes.
“You go against a guy like that, playing so well this season, especially the second half, you know you’re going to have to try match his play or try to be better,” Lundqvist said. “It’s going to be a challenge [and] I’m looking forward to that. I always like a challenge.”
Price goes into Game 1 with a postseason goals-against average of 2.15, third among remaining starters behind the Blackhawks’ Corey Crawford (1.97) and Lundqvist (1.99), the same ranking that Price’s .926 save percentage places him. He had his own impressive Game 7 performance on Wednesday night in Boston, making 29 saves on 30 shots in a 3-1 win that put down the Presidents Trophy-winning Bruins.
“They’ve just beaten the best team in the NHL,” coach Alain Vigneault said, “so we’re going to have our hands full.”
The Rangers came into this season having not won in the Bell Centre in eight straight games, getting outscored in that stretch 30-7. So in his first season behind the Rangers’ bench, Vigneault, the head coach of the Canadiens for parts of four seasons from 1997-2001, tried to crack his team up by telling them, “There are no ghosts in that building.”
After going 1-0-1 this season in Montreal — with the one win being a 1-0 victory that backup goalie Cam Talbot started when Ryan Callahan scored the lone goal, and a 1-0 overtime loss in the final game of the regular season, in which Montreal’s only motivation was obtaining home-ice in the first round of the playoffs — there at least seems to be a little bit of progress over the mental block.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s the best place to play,” said veteran Brad Richards, a Prince Edward Island native. “When you get to the Eastern Conference final, if you’re worried about how you played in a building five years ago, then you’re in a lot more trouble than you think.”
Hopefully for the Rangers, Lundqvist thinks the same way.