New York Rangers: Why Jason York is wrong about Henrik Lundqvist

Sports talk radio is a breeding ground for hot takes designed to draw outrage. Jason York of Sportsnet Canada said he “wasn’t sure that Henrik Lundqvist was a Hall of Famer.”

Anytime someone on sports talk radio opines about the validity of a player’s credentials for the Hall of Fame, lunacy is sure to follow. When it comes to hot takes, telling a team’s fan base that the best player in the history of the franchise is on the nuclear level. It’s no exaggeration to say that Henrik Lundqvist has had the greatest impact in New York Rangers’ history.

Ever since the Swede won the starting goaltender job from Kevin Weekes back in 2005, the Rangers were immediately given an air of legitimacy. While it took about six years for the organization to surround Lundqvist with enough talent to be a serious contender, he always gave the team a chance to win.

Ultimately, that’s all a franchise can ever ask from its goalie. If the man between the pipes can keep the other team from scoring more than two goals, the goalie’s team has a good chance of winning the game. In Lundqvist’s career, he’s picked up 440 wins over the course of his 13 years in the league.

While it’s easy to chalk up York’s opinon to simply filling up air time on a slow news day, let’s unpack his points and adress them one by one.

“No Cups”

The biggest indictment against Lundqvist’s resume from any observer is his lack of a Stanley Cup victory. There is no disputing the fact that when push comes to shove, the Rangers have come up short in the postseason during the Lundqvist era. In fact, New York has won the most postseason games of any team this decade to not capture the cup.

The entire segment of the show was oriented around which of the three veteran goltenders (Lundqvist, Marc-Andre Fleury and Roberto Luongo) should go into the hall of fame. York promtply responded “If it was the Hall of Very good,” as a jab at someone in the mix. The former NHLer then took a stab at Lundqvist saying “if it was the hall of very good looking he gets in.”

While York eventually made the case that Lundqvist’s post season record of 61-65 was the reason he didn’t think the goaltender was worthy. At face value, 61-65 does not look great for a goaltender of Lundqvist’s caliber, but it’s important to put those numbers into a greater context.

Going series by series, there are a few recurring themes that pop up over the course of nearly 130 postseason contests. First of all, Lundqvist was able to drag less talented teams into the playoffs to begin with. The 2005-2006 playoff matchup against the New Jersey Devils was a four game sweep in which the eight seed Rangers were slaughtered.

The two teams with the most postseason wins against New York with Lundqvist in net are exactly who you’d expect: the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals. Those team teams combined account for 28 of the Swede’s 56 losses. It should also be mentioned that New York won multiple series against both of those teams as well.

By sheer volume against quality competition, even the best goaltender is eventually going to wilt. But, the overall quality of Lundqvist’s numbers .922 save percentage and a 2.28 goals against in the postseason is nothing to scoff at.

Outright lunacy

Where York jumps off the deep end into hot take craziness is when he starts to pick players he’d put into the Hall of Fame over Lundqvist. When the analyst said he pick Jonathan Quick, Corey Crawford and even Braden Holtby in over the Rangers’ netminder he lost the argument. While all three are invidually good in their own way, none comes close to Lundqvist in supporting cast.

All three of those goaltenders won Stanley Cups because of the talent around them. Even the best Rangers’ team of Lundqvist career, the 2014-2015 President’s trophy winner, did not have the elite talent of any of the aformentioned three goaltender’s teams did.

The best player on that Rangers’ team, Rick Nash was nowhere near the level of Patrick Kane, Anze Kopitar or Alex Ovechkin. While Lundqvist has to win with what he’s got, it’s got to be within the context of the league and his own team.

The first three times Lundqvist went to the postseason his team was forced to fight above its weightclass. As time went on, his win total picked up because he had enough complimentary talent to actually win against good opponents.

There is an argument against putting Lundqvist in the Hall of Fame, a single Vezina trophy, a lack of a Stanley Cup but saying he doesn’t belong for not helping his team win in the postseason is lunacy. The man has a .97 goals against average in game sevens with a .962 save percentage. If that’s not helping your team win in the playoffs, I don’t know what is.

Definitley not a guy who helps his team win in the postseason, not at all.

It’s easy to get frustrated with sports media when hot takes are the name of game. However, it’s important to remember, Lundqvist is going to finish somewhere between third and fourth all time in wins when he hangs up his skates.