PITTSBURGH – For 24 hours, at least, the New York Rangers had to deal with questions of their own mortality. That those questions came less than 24 hours into the Stanley Cup playoffs made the mood around the team seem awfully dark.
“It’s not like everything’s over,” Rick Nash said Thursday, before teammate Henrik Lundqvist went to see a specialist about his swollen eye.
So vital is Lundqvist to the Rangers’ playoff hopes that his colleagues spoke in somber tones about the possibility of soldiering on without him. It wasn’t just that he got knocked out of Game 1 after Marc Staal’s stick blade inadvertently struck him through his cage; the way the veteran goalie reacted raised particular alarm.
He dropped to the ice immediately and frantically kicked his legs in pain.
“You hate to see stuff like that,” said defenceman Keith Yandle. “Especially when it’s your goalie, your best player. You have a certain level of concern right away.”
To find a Rangers playoff game that Lundqvist didn’t start, you have to go all the way back to April 24, 2006, when Kevin Weekes got the call in New Jersey. The King has played 111 in a row since – covering a period that includes the only playoff series in Atlanta Thrashers history, plus two trips to the Eastern Conference final and a five-game loss to Los Angeles in the 2014 Stanley Cup final.
There is still some hope he’ll be able continue that impressive streak when the Rangers face Pittsburgh in Game 2 on Saturday afternoon. Call it cautious optimism, for now.
“We don’t feel that it’s anything too serious,” said Vigneault. “There’s a little bit of swelling in and around the eye.”
Lundqvist will have to participate in Friday’s practice at Consol Energy Center to be eligible to play, according to his coach.
Magnus Hellberg was recalled from AHL Hartford as a precaution – “It’s in case we get some bad news tomorrow,” said Vigneault – but if either he or backup Antti Raanta have to carry the load, this could be a short series.
It is no stretch to label Lundqvist the backbone of the Rangers. He’s posted a .920 save percentage or better each of the last seven seasons and has carried the team close to the summit three of the last four years.
With a core of players on the wrong side of 25, there is an urgency in New York to make a championship push. They certainly want to do it while the 34-year-old Lundqvist is still performing at an elite level.
“You have a window when you are on a team that’s getting older and guys are in the prime of their careers,” said Nash. “We all know now is the time to win and we all put pressure on ourselves to produce.”
Beyond the injury to Lundqvist and a couple glaring defensive miscues, there were actually some positives to be taken from Wednesday’s 5-2 loss.
One of the main reasons Pittsburgh entered this series as the favourite is because of the wide gap in shot differentials posted by the teams in the regular season. However, the Rangers actually controlled more than 59 per cent of even-strength shot attempts in Game 1.
Where they faltered was in not being able to get to Penguins third-stringer Jeff Zatkoff, who made his first career playoff start because Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray are both dealing with head injuries.
That gave the Penguins’ big guns a chance to get going and Sidney Crosby’s line ended up burning the defensive pairing of Dan Girardi and Staal for a couple goals.
The direction of this series is likely contingent on how a couple of injury situations play out.
Fleury and Penguins centre Evgeni Malkin, who is nursing a shoulder issue, both skated Thursday and are hoping to return at some point during the first round. Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh would like to do the same, but a broken bone in his right hand will keep him out of Game 2.
And then there’s Lundqvist, who has been a thorn in the Penguins’ side while dispatching them from the playoffs the last two years.
It was a freak play that felled him with less than a minute to go in the first period on Wednesday night. Lundqvist initially consulted with team trainer Jim Ramsay and stayed in the game – allowing the opening goal to Patric Hornqvist 31 seconds later.
There was more consultation during the first intermission and at that point the medical staff decided to remove him. Raanta came in and stopped 16 of the 19 shots he faced.
Even with the benefit of hindsight, Vigneault didn’t have any regrets about how the situation was handled.
“I think at that stage we’re putting him in a very tough spot in the sense that there’s not much time left on the clock, he’s a good team guy (and) he doesn’t want to put his backup in a situation where he’s got to step on the ice with a little over a minute (left),” he said. “So he’s convincing himself ‘I’m all right.’ I’m not saying that had anything to do with the goal. Their goal was scored because we had three guys that were watching the puck behind the net and forgot 72 in front.
“But when he came in (the dressing room), he had a tough time seeing.”
If that continues to be the case, the challenge facing the Rangers is monumental. To see the looks on the face of players the morning after Game 1 spoke to the gravity of the situation.
“You’re not going to be able to fill those shoes,” said Nash. “He’s won at every level. He’s the face of this franchise.”
