Player Discussion Henrik Lundqvist: Part II

[Fugazy]

They do? Don't they normally give up 40 shots when Igor is in net?

They sure do.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

You either die the hero or live long enough to become the villain. For whatever reason people hold Hank's contract (either $ or NMC) as a personal slight against them. Its the only way to logically explain the emotional hatred some people have.

If I were to place a bet on Hank's future based on his personality and his career decisions, he "retires" and plays one more season for Frolunda with his brother. They prolly win another Championship and then he seals the deal with another World Championship. This would also keep the door open for possibly playing in the Olympics if the NHL chooses not to release its players again.

Hank is too much of a competitor to go out on a performance like this. He's gonnna want to prove to himself in a true full time gig whether he has it or not. He won't get that chance here, but he is still royalty in Sweden.

To be completely honest though, there seem to be 2 very vocal camps when it comes to Lundqvist.

The fans: They make up excuses for every goal he lets in, every bad game he has. It's either the refs, or the defense, or the head coach waiting too long to play him, or not pulling him early enough. You can go on and on. This group never ever blames Lundqvist for a goal, ever. Lundqvist can never do anything wrong in their eyes.

The "haters": Not a fan of using the word, but for the lack of a better word, I will go with it. This is the group that criticizes everything Lundqvist does. If he doesn't thank a teammate for taking away the shooting lane, they complain. They never criticize Georgiev or Shestyorkin, or in the past Talbot, Biron, Raanta, or even Johnson. Lundqvist can never do anything right in their eyes.

These two remind me so much of political debates (and I don't want to have this escalate into a political debate, just as a comparison). 2 sides blinded by love/hate and they will only blame 1 goalie for the one loss vs Philly while absoling the other completely for the other loss vs Philly.

To me, there's a truth to both but one cannot live without the other so to speak. Lundqvist was to blame for the Grant goal, and a case can be made for him deflecting the puck straight onto Couturier's stick. But that's the thing. If you say that about Lundqvist, you should be as critical of Georgiev for the goals he let in on Friday. I am not necessarily talking about HFNYR, because to be honest, this platform is relatively calm regardless of what side people are on, but man. Have I seen some horrible takes.

No, Lundqvist isn't the goalie he once was. Yes, his cap hit is a bit of an anchor. And sure, you could make a case for Georgiev being better value for the money he makes, as he has similar numbers for an entry level cap hit. And in a cap world, that's one of my first points to bring up. I have been critical of Lundqvist, and for this team moving forward, an early retirement would be great. At the same time, I understand why people are opposed to it. There's 2 sides to this coin, so to speak. Having said that, Shestyorkin masked the deficiencies we have on defense and maybe him being out, combined with the stronger schedule ahead, will show us where we really stand, and to me we are just not a wild card team. We are punching well above our weight this season, and it's a miracle we are in the race. If we miss the play offs, it won't be because of the goaltending, whether that's a 24-year old Russian on an entry level contract (Georgiev) or a 38 year old Swede 1 year away from retirement.

 

[Blue Blooded]

They give up more shots with Shesty in net, but the average quality of those shots has been significantly lower. Shesty has still done a much better job though.

 

[OrlandK]

Time to just face the obvious. Noone beats father time. Hank is the greatest Ranger ever and should go out with class, but let's not make up excuses for him. Makes no sense for Rangers to go with Hank instead of Georgi unless they can get a #1 draft pick for Georgi

Season	Age	GP	W	L	T/O	SV%	GAA
2014-15	32	46	30	13	3	.922	2.25
2015-16	33	65	35	21	7	.920	2.48
2016-17	34	57	31	20	4	.910	2.74
2017-18	35	63	26	26	7	.915	2.98
2018-19	36	52	18	23	10	.907	3.07
2019-20	37	29	10	12	3	.904	3.19

[THEAD] [/THEAD]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Glen Sathers Cigar]

Lindquist has been perpetually over rated
Pity Rather hadn't traded him years ago

 

[Crease]

Don't feed the troll.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Lindquist has been perpetually over rated
Pity Rather hadn't traded him years ago

Yeah. Finally someone pointing it out. Lindqvist was overrated. He couldn't even stick in Hartford and went back to the SHL.

 

[haohmaru]

Yeah. Finally someone pointing it out. Lindqvist was overrated. He couldn't even stick in Hartford and went back to the SHL.

Wasn’t that Hank’s bro Lias Lundqvist?

 

[True Blue]

Don't feed the troll.

Oh, boy. They come out and play every now and then, huh?

 

[Hunter Gathers]

They give up more shots with Shesty in net, but the average quality of those shots has been significantly lower. Shesty has still done a much better job though.
View attachment 329837

Too small of a sample size to mean all that much with Shesty only getting into 10 games so far.

 

[NYRFANMANI]

Also feel bad for the King.

Happy birthday Hank!

 

[Siddi]

Lindquist has been perpetually over rated
Pity Rather hadn't traded him years ago

You should get tested for Covid-19. You are fever ranting.

 

[Inferno]

Henrik is not walking away from free money

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Henrik is not walking away from free money

Not that I disagree with you but others have done it.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

feel bad for hank.

dont kid yourself, this team plays better in front of igor. isnt fair but its definitely there.

Shesterkin is position ally worlds ahead of Hank right now, and it might be all mental but its plays like when he kicked the puck to the middle of the ice and basically had vacated the net where Shesterkin would have handled better. It sucks, I really feel for him but I don't see any way of him getting out of this now especially if Shesterkin is back soon. He really should have tried to get moved at the deadline.

 

[Inferno]

Not that I disagree with you but others have done it.

Not most ppl.

I sure as hell wouldn't

 

[Inferno]

Shesterkin is position ally worlds ahead of Hank right now, and it might be all mental but its plays like when he kicked the puck to the middle of the ice and basically had vacated the net where Shesterkin would have handled better.

Shesterkin is not positionally better than Henrik.

He's positionally different from Henrik.

Henrik has always stayed deep in his net relying on his reflexes to get to pucks rather than cutting off angles. Shesterkin is far more aggressive.

Hebriks issue is he's not as quick as he uses to be...which means even when he's making saves, he's not directing them like he used to. Prime Henrik would place rebounds into areas where we could break out from. Now he's just trying to make that first stop

With all that said, only a fool would put these 2 games on our goalies. We were absolutely atrocious defensively. Maybe shesterkin could have bailed us out, but relying on godlike goaltending is something I've seen enough of. That argument doesn't hold water to me anymore.

 

[WojtekWolski86]

Lindquist has been perpetually over rated
Pity Rather hadn't traded him years ago

Before this year Hank has had the following Star support.

1 100 point scorer while Hank has been with the team
1 50 goal scorer
2 40 goal scorers
1 86 pt scorer

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Shesterkin is not positionally better than Henrik.

He's positionally different from Henrik.

Henrik has always stayed deep in his net relying on his reflexes to get to pucks rather than cutting off angles. Shesterkin is far more aggressive.

Hebriks issue is he's not as quick as he uses to be...which means even when he's making saves, he's not directing them like he used to. Prime Henrik would place rebounds into areas where we could break out from. Now he's just trying to make that first stop

With all that said, only a fool would put these 2 games on our goalies. We were absolutely atrocious defensively. Maybe shesterkin could have bailed us out, but relying on godlike goaltending is something I've seen enough of. That argument doesn't hold water to me anymore.

Shesterkin is as good positionally as anyone in the league, Hank isn't there anymore and he is scrambling more and more. I feel its mental but this isnt something that just appeared yesterday he has been like this all year. Age sucks, being the 3rd goalie is mentally straining,it all adds up to something that would be very hard to dig your way out of. Shesterkin can keep us in games like Hank used to. It's the difference between winning a game when the other team is better out the gate and losing. Our defense is a bit of a mess, our left side to be exact, it got worse with Skjei's departure even if it was the right move. We can't win with mediocre goaltending unfortunately.

 

[Shesterkybomb]

Not that I disagree with you but others have done it.

Unfortunately the right thing to do now would be to make a deal with him that they play him a lot til the years end and see if he feels he still has it and wants a trade in the offseason. If not then retire and take an overpaid job with the organization that makes up for lost revenue. The problem is we are close to a playoff spot, I expect a lot of Shesterkin

 

[Leafshater67]

Any predictions what Hank does next season? His contract is boarderline unmovable and even with 50% retained, it’s still a lot for what you get on the ice.

Think he goes back to Sweden or goes to a team close to the cap floor?

 

[offdacrossbar]

i felt bad for hank last game.

quinn kinda threw him to the wolves. and i disagree with some here, he did NOT look comfortable. the first 2 goals were ugly. the grant goal wasnt pretty either. he was rusty as expected.

i dont think well see much hanky from here on in.

quinns gotta ride georgie now.

 

[will1066]

i felt bad for hank last game.

quinn kinda threw him to the wolves. and i disagree with some here, he did NOT look comfortable. the first 2 goals were ugly. the grant goal wasnt pretty either. he was rusty as expected.

i dont think well see much hanky from here on in.

quinns gotta ride georgie now.

No offense, but what wouldn't have qualified as being thrown to the wolves after a month between starts? Nevertheless, people were pining for Hank to start, with the "we're gonna win one back on Sunday" and "Hank's going to be extra motivated in front of the home crowd" and "Hank's gonna pitch a shutout."

 

[haohmaru]

No offense, but what wouldn't have qualified as being thrown to the wolves after a month between starts? Nevertheless, people were pining for Hank to start, with the "we're gonna win one back on Sunday" and "Hank's going to be extra motivated in front of the home crowd" and "Hank's gonna pitch a shutout."

Couple the rust with the team playing its third game in less than 48 hours and Kreider out long term and you've got the perfect "thrown to the wolves" scenario.

Sure, I was rooting for him too. Who wouldn't? Doesn't change the shitshow scenario. Georgiev should've gotten the night off Friday after playing Thursday and started on Sunday. Friday would've been the better choice - on the road, Kreider healthy, no MSG expectations, etc... I didn't expect a lot different than what I saw - a tired team, a rusty goalie, and Strome picking a bad time to have his worst game as a Ranger.

 

[romba]

I wasn't super keyed in on the replays because of disgust in our team's play (skip skip skip ANOTHER DAMN GOAL AGAINST skip skip skip) but that partial breakway goal Hank gave up makes me sad. He bit so hard on a poor angle fake (lefty shot coming in on left wing) and ended up sliding wide and covering the boards instead of the net.