After the New York Rangers started the season with an epic nine-game road trip (an anonymous source confirms the Blueshirts were advised to pack two toothbrushes), they were due for a break.
In the eyes of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, they didn’t get one.
After missing a pair of games due to a nagging but undisclosed injury, the former Vezina winner returned to action in the opening hockey game held in the new-look Madison Square Garden, now $1 billion sexier. Lundqvist made 25 saves in a 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, but he took issue with the Habs’ game-sealing second goal, which was directed into the net by forward Alex Galchenyuk’s skate.
Watch the third-period play above.
“If that’s not a kick, I don’t know what a kick is. Seriously. There needs to be some consistency in the calls. I think that’s a kick — that’s my opinion,” Lundqvist told reporters after the game. “Just a frustrating goal there. It kills the whole the game. It is what it is. It’s over, but it’s disappointing.”
The Rangers had been pressing to tie the game at one when Galcheyuk added his controversial insurance marker. After a lengthy video review, the officials ruled the goal good.
“It would be very interesting to hear the explanation for it,” Lundqvist said.
No doubt Galchenyuk’s goal falls into a grey area. He does not bring his foot back and boot it, but he clearly directs his right skate blade directly at the puck as he stops near the crease. It’s intentional. And his lack of celebration after the goal leads you to believe even he suspects it might be ruled a bad goal.
That said, Lundqvist’s remarks seem to speak beyond that specific play and more to his overall frustration with a 3-7-0 team that sits last in the NHL’s weakest division, the Metropolitan, and has a league-worst minus-20 goal differential.
Losing is foreign to Lundqvist, and he is a man at odds with the disappointment.
Watch: Lundqvist discusses the controversial goal in his postgame scrum
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