The New York Rangers have just 12 games remaining in this difficult slog of a season. The rest of the way should be about limiting Henrik Lundqvist’s workload.
It’s simply a matter of fact that prior to this season, Henrik Lundqvist had never played in a meaningless NHL game. That’s both a testament to his skill and the talent of the teams around him. Although they’ve never won the Stanley Cup, they have had more than enough talent for the regular season.
Now, with little to gain from these final games the Rangers need to make an important choice. It won’t be an easy sell to convince Lundqvist that he should rest. As a competitor and one of the strongest voices in the dressing room, he holds a lot of clout. This season, the veteran is on pace to start more games than in any other season since the 2010-2011 season.
Unlike back then though, Lundqvist is no longer a spring chicken. The Swede has been amongst the team’s best players all season long even though his numbers don’t reflect that. Although the team has struggled, Lundqvist is still playing pretty much every single game. It almost seems that if head coach Alain Vingeualt was trying to ride out the season and force his way into the post season.
Unfortunately, the greatness of Lundqvist can only do so much with so little in front of him to work with. In an overall inconseqential season, the veteran has shouldered a ridiculous work load and it’s important that the team give him time to rest.
The workload
It isn’t much of a secret that the Rangers are a terrible possesion team. Take the western Canada road trip from early March for example. The team gave up 50 shots in consecutive games and somehow the Rangers managed to win. The sheer brilliance of Lundqvist pushed the team over the hump against outright bad teams.
A 50 shot game is the equivalent of throwing 130 pitches in a start as an MLB pitcher. It should be something that rarely happens if it even does at all. This season has taken a toll, Lundqvist has been pulled from games more this year than any other year in his entire career. This is directly tied to just how bad the Rangers are in their own zone.
Getting heavily outshot on a nightly basis makes for a grueling season as a goaltender. The sheer volume of shots that come in from high danger areas make Lundqvist’s job pretty much impossible. That’s why it might seem as if the goaltender is having a rough season even though he actually isn’t on the ice.
The Kid
The Rangers also have the added benefit of having a green NHL backup in Alexandar Georgiev. As a 22-year-old with four career NHL starts, the rest of the season is the perfect oppurtunity for the goaltender. As a young propsect on an entry level contract, giving Georgiev NHL ice time goes a long way in his development.
Take the game Monday night against the Hurricanes, the 22-year-old was outstanding. The pair of saves he made on Jeff Skinner late in the third period were outstanding. Even though the Rangers were dramatically outshot again, he still was able to give the team a chance to win. For someone with so little NHL experience, Georgiev plays composed and keeps it together even in scrambles.
Vigneault announced that Georgiev would start Wednesday’s game against the two time defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins. This is going to be an immense challenge for the Rangers and Georgiev. The Penguins have the fifth best Corsi For Percentage (51.96) and the Rangers have a league worst 45.90%.
This means that the Penguins get 51.96% of shots on goal while the Rangers only get 45.90%. The last time the teams met, Pittsburgh ran riot in a 5-2 win in which Lundqvist made 42 saves.
Next: What will the blueline look like next year
Georgiev getting the start on Wednesday is a good start and should be a sign of things to come for the remainder of the season. Any talk of making the playoffs at this point are dellusional and riding a 36 year old goal tender in hopes of sneaking into the playoffs is a fool’s errand. See what you have in Georgiev and maybe you have your backup goaltender situation for next season solved.