NEW YORK?The last division champions still alive in the NHL playoffs, the New York Rangers face elimination on Friday night when they go across the Hudson River to Newark for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against the New Jersey Devils.
Eighteen years to the day after Mark Messier famously guaranteed that the Rangers would win Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference finals in New Jersey?a vow he delivered on with a hat trick at the Meadowlands?there were no similar proclamations from the locker room about bringing the series back to Broadway for a Game 7 on Sunday. There was, however, one important declaration.
?He?ll play his best game tomorrow night,? New York coach John Tortorella said of Henrik Lundqvist, the Hart and Vezina Trophy finalist who had his worst performance of the playoffs in the Rangers? Game 5 loss, allowing four goals on 16 shots.
Tortorella made a similar, more conditional statement about Brad Richards, saying, ?I expect him to play his best game too,? and ?I think Brad Richards will find his way tomorrow as far as winning a game.?
There was no such caution when it came to Lundqvist, as Tortorella reiterated, ?I just know Hank will play his best game tomorrow night.?
There is good reason for Tortorella?s belief in his goaltender. There were six games this season in which Lundqvist allowed four goals. In his subsequent starts, the Swedish superstar went 5-0-1 with a 2.08 goals against average and .930 save percentage. Those figures include the first game of the playoffs, after Lundqvist gave up four goals to the Washington Capitals in the regular-season finale.
Then there are the three games that the Rangers have played in the postseason when a loss would send them home. Obviously, New York has gone undefeated when facing elimination. Lundqvist has been outstanding in all three games, posting a 1.33 goals against average and .948 save percentage.
?When you go into a game like this, you want to win so bad that sometimes you might put more pressure (on yourself) than you need,? Lundqvist said. ?When you?re out there, you try to just focus on the things you always focus on, playing the game. The challenge, every time you play an important game, is to find a good balance, mentally. I?m trying to approach it the same way and trying to focus on my things.?
Lundqvist has been able to do that so far in this year?s playoffs, carrying the Rangers when they have most needed him to do so. That includes Games 1 and 3 against the Devils, when Lundqvist posted shutouts and New York prevailed on third-period goals after being largely outplayed by New Jersey.
By winning those games, and the elimination games, and prevailing in the triple-overtime thriller in Washington in the last round, Lundqvist has laid to rest the idea that he might not be cut out for big games, which always seemed silly given that he had never played for a team that was anywhere close to being a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, and the biggest reason that they have been a playoff team has been elite goaltending. This season, Lundqvist had the best team in front of him that he has ever had, and he has delivered in the playoffs, one ill-timed bad game aside. That is the source of Tortorella?s confidence in him, despite their limited interaction.
?Unless I?m pissed off about something, I really don?t talk to him about his play because I know nothing about it,? said Tortorella, who leaves his netminders to work with Benoit Allaire, goaltending coach extraordinaire. ?As a coach, I just want him to stop the puck. He knows that. I don?t need to say that to him. So I don?t spend too much time speaking to him.?
Or worrying about him. The Devils may be able to keep Richards off his game with checking strategies and line matchups, but goaltenders have a singular ability to change the course of a game and a series regardless of what the opposition is doing. There were no guarantees from the Rangers on Thursday, and there is no guarantee that Lundqvist will be able to save them again, but New York should be?and is?quite happy to take its chances with him in net.
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