New York Rangers vs. Canadiens Goaltending Preview
In 2013-14 when the New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens met up in the playoffs, the highly anticipated matchup of Henrik Lundqvist and Carey Price lasted half a game, as Price left the series with an injury.
There hasn’t been a playoff series with two goalies of Henrik Lundqvist and Carey Price’s magnitude since…the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens met up in the Eastern Conference Finals in 13-14.
Due to the freight-train-on-skates that is Chris Kreider moving hard towards the net like he was shot out of a cannon, running into the future Hall of Famer Price in game one, the duo’s last playoff meeting was cut very short.
Flash forward to 2017, and we will be lucky enough to see the two greats of their generation face off in a best-of-seven series once again.
Thankful for the New Season
Alain Vigneault said it best last night in his postgame press conference; Wednesday begins a new season and every player on every team participating in the tournament has a clean slate to work with.
This is especially good for Lundqvist and Price.
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For years, you couldn’t have a Vezina debate without mentioning these two netminders. This year is a completely different story.
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Carey Price’s numbers still represented that of an above average goalie, but they weren’t the numbers he has grown accustomed to producing. Price finished in a tie with Boston’s Tuukka Rask for 5th in the league in wins (37), 6th in the league in goals-against average (2.23) and 9th in save percentage (.923). He did finish outside the top 15 in shutouts with three.
Henrik Lundqvist’s down year led to numbers of a fringe NHL starter. Yeah, you read that right…
Lundqvist held up for 31 wins on the year, even though he missed time with his hip injury that kept him out 2 and a half weeks. Those 31 wins tied for 12th in the league with Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. He also only registered two shutouts on the year, a career low.
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The rest of his numbers actually a bit depressing.
Lundqvist ranks 35th in the NHL with a 2.75 GAA. He also ranks 33rd in save percentage with a mediocre .910%. While he as at fault for those poor numbers, the fact that he has a defense that probably could be outplayed by a WHL team doesn’t help matters at all.
How Their Season’s Ended
After a really rough start to February, Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens turned it around. After the Julien hiring, the Canadiens began to adapt a system that pays more attention to the defensive side of things.
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Price and his teammates have gotten comfortable in the new system rather quickly. Prior to the Canadiens last game of the season where they had nothing to play for, Price had only given up three goals in just one of their last seven games. He has seemed to benefit greatly from the new system.
Lundqvist has continued to struggle mightily. In his last 11 games, Lundqvist has given up less than three goals only three times, including a stretch of four games where he gave up a total of 16 goals–his first four games back from the hip injury.
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Maybe his poor play can be attributed to the lack of meaning in the past two weeks’ games. The Rangers better hope so, because they are going to find out pretty quickly who the better goaltender in the series is if things continue to go the way they have.