As Lundqvist Sits Again, A Hot Hand Turns Cool
In a surprise move, the Rangers' red-hot first-year goalie, Cam Talbot, will start instead of Henrik Lundqvist against the Winnipeg Jets at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. This will be the second straight game Lundqvist will sit out despite being healthy, the first time that has happened since the 2010-11 season.
Coach Alain Vigneault was quick to douse talk of a goalie controversy, though.
'Henrik is definitely the No. 1 goaltender on this team - he's proven over the years that he's one of the best, if not the best, in the National Hockey League,' Vigneault said at the Garden after the morning skate. 'But for tonight's game I feel that the best thing for us is to go with Cam.'
Talbot has been nearly flawless this season, going 6-1 and logging a stellar .944 save percentage. He stopped 35 shots Saturday in a 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks, and became the first goalie to start his N.H.L. career by allowing two goals or fewer in each of his first seven starts since Frank Brimsek in 1938-39.
Those numbers helped persuade Vigneault to give another start to Talbot, who is not technically a rookie because he is 26. But it raised questions where none existed, causing a horde of reporters to descend on Lundqvist after he was the last man off the ice after the morning skate.
'I've been here for eight years - I've never been happy sitting on the bench,' said Lundqvist, who patiently answered questions for 12 minutes. 'That being said, Cam is playing really well. I see this as a great opportunity for me to get a couple extra days to work really hard on my game and get ready for the next time they tell me to start.'
Lundqvist, 31, has been consistently excellent since joining the Rangers from Sweden in 2005, finishing in the top 10 in save percentage six times in his eight seasons. He is a three-time All-Star, a Vezina Trophy winner and an Olympic gold medalist. Some years, he almost single-handedly got the Rangers into the playoffs, earning the team Most Valuable Player award seven years in a row.
But this season has been different for him. He is in the last year of his contract, and talks between his agent and the Rangers are stalled - a big distraction, although Lundqvist insists he is not thinking about it now.
On the ice, Lundqvist started dreadfully, but he has a strong .930 save percentage in his last 13 appearances. His overall save percentage is .917, and his goals-against average (2.51) is a goal higher than Talbot's (1.49). Lundqvist has allowed the occasional soft goal, like Zdeno Chara's decisive third-period tally in a 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Friday.
'As a goalie you can stop 35, 40 shots, and you make one mistake, that's what you're going to remember,' Lundqvist said. 'I'm not going to be happy by playing solid - I want to push myself to play great. That's what I expect of myself.
'I had a stretch, 11, 12 games, where I looked at my numbers and they were pretty good. I'm not going to make too big of a deal here. It's small details in this game that make you go the right way instead of the wrong way.'
Talbot said again Monday that being in the N.H.L. was 'a dream come true.' He played four years with the University of Alabama, Huntsville, was undrafted but signed with the Rangers as a free agent, then spent three years in the American Hockey League.
Talbot said he received a text message Sunday from his coaches telling him to be ready, but the goalies seemed to get the final word on Monday night's starter on the ice at practice.
Talbot went to take his place at one end of the rink, but Lundqvist motioned for him to take the other end, where the starter usually goes. Talbot patted Lundqvist on the back and insisted on taking the backup end.
'We have a great relationship - I support him, he supports me,' Lundqvist said. 'This is about the team. This is what's best for tonight, and we support that. That's just the way you have to deal with it.'
Vigneault is no stranger to goalie controversy, having coached the Vancouver Canucks the last two seasons, which featured a Roberto Luongo-Cory Schneider soap opera. At one point Monday morning Vigneault responded to reporters' repeated questions about Lundqvist and Talbot by doing a laughing double-take and saying, 'Do I look like a rookie here doing this?'
'Cam's playing extremely well right now,' Vigneault said, explaining his rationale. 'He's got a lot of confidence in his abilities, and for tonight's game I just thought it was the right call.'
He added that Lundqvist's contract situation was not a factor.
'Contract discussions are not part of my job description,' Vigneault said. 'I'm here trying to coach the team. Henrik is one of the highest competitors I've seen in this game. Is he happy about not playing? No, he wants to play every game. Whether I tell him in a back-to-back that he's not playing, he's not happy with it. He wants to play. That's what competitors do. Next time we need him I'm sure he's going to be ready.'
The Rangers do seem to play more tightly in front of Talbot. He has faced an average of 26.8 shots per game, while Lundqvist has faced 30.2 shots per game. But Vigneault said both goalies were dealing with fewer than 15 scoring chances per game.
Lundqvist pointed out that the Rangers were scoring more goals on the road (35), where Talbot tends to play, than at home (25).
But Lundqvist reiterated that he supported Vigneault's decision.
'This game is not about what you did last year or the last eight years or last month - it's about now,' he said. 'And tonight this is the best decision for the team. I stand behind that. I just have to see it as a challenge for me to reach my top level.'
Lundqvist said that he had been thinking too much during games and that he would have to work to attain the level of instinctiveness he needed.
'You can't just snap your fingers and it's going to be there,' he said.
'Sometimes I feel like I'm almost a step ahead of the play, reading instead of just waiting and reacting - I'm analyzing the game as it moves on. That's not really how I want to play; I want to just wait and react.'
So, Lundqvist will watch from the bench Monday night as Talbot takes the ice and he will try not to make too much about it or about what it might mean to his Rangers career.
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