New York Rangers: Top 5 Saves in November

Henrik Lundqvist has been doing such a stellar job this season that after October, we here at BLS decided he deserved his own slideshow of top saves on a monthly basis.

Lundqvist has done it all this season, helping the Rangers go 9-4-1 through the month of November, and 13-11-2 through the first 26.

This month, Lundqvist recorded a respectable .913 save percentage and let in two goals or fewer than half of the appearances he made.

The only game where he really stumbled was against the Islanders, when he let in five goals on 17 shots and was pulled from the game. Had that game not happened, Lundqvist’s save percentage would have topped out at .936 through the nine other games.

Lundqvist has successfully given the Rangers an opportunity to stay in games, even while facing a high number of shots, seeing 30 or more in half of the games this month — and in 12 in his first 20 starts.

Needless to say, there are always a plethora of Henrik highlights. Here are our choice for his top five saves in November.

Number 5 – Save on Xavier Ouellet’s deflection

The Rangers have struggled to find their footing in the defensive zone this season, with players rotating in and out of the lineup as they try to find pairs that work.

Here we Kevin Shattenkirk and Brendan Smith let Montreal walk right up on Lundqvist, but Lundqvist manages to recover and stop the puck.

Montreal’s Max Domi controls the puck through the neutral zone and across the blue line with some pressure from former Rangers forward Ryan Spooner (eventually traded to Edmonton for Ryan Strome) .

He skates over to the lefthand side of the ice, and lays a quick pass up to Xavier Ouellet who somehow managed to be open directly in front of Lundqvist, despite Brendan Smith and Kevin Shattenkirk being right in his vicinity.

Off the pass from Domi, Oulette merely popped his stick out and deflected the puck on net.

The puck seems to have moved in a somewhat different direction than Lundqvist anticipated, causing him to need to recover and makes the save for the puck under his pad on his left leg.

It’s times like this where Lundqvist’s 13 years in the league make a difference. He is able to anticipate and read plays allowing him to make these adjustments in milliseconds.

Number 4 – Shutting down Travis Konecny

This game against Philadelphia was when Lundqvist saw his highest workload of the month. He made 42 saves on 45 shots faced and only allowed three goals. The Rangers let up two goals in the third and would go on to lose this game 4-0.

In this sequence, the puck is tied up in the corner to the right of Lundqvist and is sent off opposite side behind the net.

Namestnikov races alongside Flyers’ captain Claude Giroux, who beats the Rangers forward to the puck and sends it up to defenseman Radko Gudas at the point. Gudas one times a slapshot on net, which was deflected but Lundqvist manages to fight off.

As he tries to pin the puck in on his body, it trickles out behind him. Forward Travis Konecny happens to be wide open right behind there. Luckily, Brady Skjei managed to react and gets himself in behind Lundqvist, giving him the time to get on top of the puck.

What’s most impressive about plays like this is how good Lundqvist’s body position is, consistently allowing him to stop pucks that change direction.

Number 3 – Three game-saving stops

With the state of the Rangers defense, there have been many moments where Lundqvist has made a series of stops on plays in front of the net. This set happens to come with just seconds left in a one goal game.

The Canucks not only had pulled their goaltender to try to tie the game, but the Rangers had also taken a penalty, giving Vancover a two-man advantage.

In this video, we see Vancover forward Sven Baertschi controlling the puck along the boards, he passes to Derrick Poulliot on the blue line, who gives it right back.

Baertschi is patient with the puck and holds onto it as he moves in closer to the net. During this time, he gets Brady Skjei (who is covering him in front of the net) to bite and go down on one knee. Pulling the puck across his body, he gets a clean shot on net.

Lundqvist stops this, however, and the puck dribbles out just in front of him where there are three Vancouver Canucks on his right and just Neal Pionk over on his lefthand side. The puck ends up right on the stick of Jake Virtanen who shoots, and Lunqvist makes another save. This puck comes off his pad and out to Bo Horvat who shoots and Lundqvist — who was still moving to his left —  makes a save with his glove but does not hold on.

With the puck still loose, Skjei finally manages to get back into play action. Coming in, simply threw his body onto Horvat who had collected his own rebound. The puck deflects off Skjei’s skate and safely into the corner as time expires.

Sequences like this are not rare, and (perhaps because of this) Lundqvist always manages to maintain composure. In this scenario, he helped the Rangers save this game.

Number 2 – Stuffing Simmonds

Here is yet another instance where Lundqvist managed to keep his team in a game, despite them basically falling apart in front of him.

This play starts in the Flyers’ zone. Travis Sanheim makes a great stretch pass up to James van Riemsdyk and a two-on-one develops as the Rangers lost Tony DeAngelo in the neutral zone. Brady Skjei is alone between van Riemsdyk and Wayne Simmonds, and van Riemsdyk opts for the pass.

Simmonds collects the puck and wrists it on net. Lundqvist makes a stop, despite van Reimsdyk coming through the crease. The rebound comes right back out to Simmonds.

Even though Skjei was sliding into him, Lundqvist managed to feel the puck and anticipate that the that it would be heading back in Simmonds’ direction. Therefore, he is able to move his body over to the opposite side of the net, which would have otherwise been wide open and stop Simmonds a second time.

Again, just a prime example of how Lundqvist has established himself as such a consistent goaltender in the league.