With most of their star players on the injury list, the Habs still proved they had what it took to outgun the blueshirts 6-3 (with the empty netter). In, fact, formerly impressive Robert lang almost did it all by himself. It didn't appear to be the typical star effort by 'Swede-Sexy' aka Henrik Lundqvist, who played the puck behind his own net and inadvertantly turned it over for an easy tap in goal that put Montreal up 1-0, as the netminder scrambled to get back into position. But hey... even Zoolander an off night on the runways, right? Ok, enough poking fun at the goalie named "sexiest iceman" by the New York post.
Last night is a night that Henrik is struggling with his conscience to forget. While, Tom Renney and company are quick to point out the fact that the penalties weren't evenly distributed between the two teams, its still wishful thinking that the Refs will play fair and your nonexistent powerplay will net you a goal on every attempt and that your goaltender will save you every night it doesn't. Its more troubling how this team could be offensively anemic, that they expect goaltending to save them on a nightly basis without returning the favor on games like the one against the Habs last night.
To the people that will point out that Henrik has let in more goals in the last several games than is his average and use that as a basis for him being a part of the problem, I say hogwash. It stands to reason that even the best of goalies eventually succumb to the pressures of having to carry a team that hangs him out to dry and shows very little firepower. In the NHL, you either carry a few big guns or lots of little ones. Regardless of the size or number of guns we have, we lack the passion to pull any trigger(s). Under those circumstances, even the best of armor will only get you thing in a fire fight. Shot.
-J_Undisputed
Great post.
ReplyDeleteLundqvist is asked to carry this team far to often...Even the greats have some bad games...Unfortunately the Rangers offense/power play seem to have even more bad games.
kotsy: I believe Lundqvist is feeling the pressure of knowing the team can't score and he has to basically keep the goals against around 2.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot for a Goaltender to deal with. It doesn't excuse the poor effort but that's the way it is.
Beezer,
ReplyDeleteSometimes it seems if it weren't for bad games, the offense and powerplay wouldnt have any games at all.
Kotsy,
I think you're right on the nose on the pressure. Remember those first few post lost interviews, where he would take all the blame for letting in any kind of goal at all? Then over the next few you could sense the frustration, as he really didn't have an answer for what went wrong when pressed for a reaction. Lastly, after shutting out the pens, he said he felt good but was lucky in the first period while the rest of the team was saying it was the most complete game they played all season. Its probably me reading too much into things, but it seems that subconciously, he may be finally drawing a between his effort and their effort.
- J_Undisputed
I completely agree 'J' and if you noticed during the Lang-dupes-Staal for 'an easy over Henrik' goal, you could see that The King immediately slammed his stick down, got in the face of Marc with a WTF?? and shunned that one off to terrible defense. It appears he's not taking all the responsibility the last couple of horrible games...not sure if that is a good thing or not.
ReplyDeleteOne thing for sure is the NHL annoited him an All-Star - the League certainly recognizes his efforts above and beyond the support he isn't getting on the NYR blueline. Quite the compliment I'd say.
Great post and great pix.
tdr