So it’s probably folly to judge Henrik Lundqvist, too, and I won’t.
But the fact is, backup Alexandar Georgiev has outplayed him lately while they have pretty much rotated starts — each playing 10 of the past 20 games, neither starting more than two in a row since Feb. 4.
Lundqvist has never been in such a rotation, at least not since he became the Rangers’ No. 1 goalie. He’s always been the alpha, his backup clearly the backup.
And it’s certainly admirable the way he’s taking his lumps because he wants to be part of the solution, knowing he can’t win consistently with this roster in front of him but hoping to help impart leadership and lessons as his team tries to figure it out during a drastic rebuild.
I just wonder what it’s going to look like going forward, what it will look like during the last two years of Lundqvist’s contract, when his team gets even younger – when maybe a playoff spot, but certainly not much more than that, can be in the Rangers’ sights.
And I just wonder how much of the job will be his given the way Georgiev has played and given that super-prospect Igor Shersterkin should land on North American soil, with an entry-level contract, by next training camp.
Lundqvist is 37. Who knows how Lundqvist’s role will look or how he will handle it.
How will he handle more nights like Saturday, when he and the overmatched Rangers had zero chance against the not-great but desperate Minnesota Wild, who won 5-2.
Look, Lundqvist made plenty of really good saves, as he almost always does. But he let in one – I’m not calling it a stinker, but it was a short-sider on which he lost his angle, or perhaps he cheated.
He made 40 or more saves once again, for the fifth time this season, the 33rdtime in his career. Eight of those have happened since the 2018 trade deadline. My God, it’s become a too-familiar theme these past two years, hasn’t it? He hasn’t had a shutout since Nov. 19, 2017.
The Rangers don’t score enough. And they don’t defend well at all. So their goalies have to be perfect. They’re not.
Lundqvist is not. For a long time, he was close to perfect when he didn’t need to be. Now, what’s next?
