KING HENRIK SMILING AS WINS PILE UP
Two best goalies on the planet face off when Price and Habs hit the Big Apple
Both the Canadiens and New York Rangers have run up nine-game winning streaks this season, seeing them snapped just before they rolled into double digits.
On Wednesday, the Habs will try to keep the Rangers from winning their 10th straight at Madison Square Garden, the Broadway Blueshirts last having won nine in a row on home ice 44 years ago.
The Canadiens have had a handful of significant tests through 22 games this NHL season, but what lies dead ahead in Manhattan should be their toughest challenge yet. Both teams are virtually tied atop the Eastern Conference with 16 wins and 34 points, the Rangers ranked ahead because of their game in hand.
For all the enduring nonsense about “Carey Price vs. Jaroslav Halak” games — and didn’t that ship sail long, long ago? — what is legitimately captivating is Price vs. the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist.
(However, goaltenders will tell you, reasonably, that they never actually play versus one another, not when they stand 180 feet apart with 10 players between them. But a mask-to-mask showdown is always a talking point for fans and the media.)
In their one meeting this season, on Oct. 15 at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens blanked the Rangers 3-0 on the strength of Price’s 25 saves. Lundqvist made 29 stops, with the Habs scoring into an empty net in the final minute.
That was the Canadiens’ fifth straight win to start the season, establishing a franchise record. They ran it to nine in a row before losing in Vancouver on Oct. 27.
In their 16 games since that Bell Centre loss, the Rangers have been beaten only three times — once in regulation, once in overtime, once in a shootout. The Canadiens have lost six of 17 since blanking the Rangers, four in regulation, once each in overtime and shootout.
Price’s career record against the Rangers is ridiculous — 11-51 in 18 appearances with seven shutouts, a 1.75 goals-against average and .943 save percentage.
Lundqvist, who’s not terribly fussy about the Bell Centre (4-72, 3.68, .882), is 14-14-2 vs. the Habs in his career, with two shutouts, both on home ice, a 2.67 average and .903 save percentage.
On Monday, the Rangers were outshot 31-19 at home vs. Nashville, including 14-3 in the first period, but still triumphed 3-0 for win No. 11 in their past 12 games.
“We’re not going to apologize for good goaltending,” head coach Alain Vigneault said afterward.
“Was it a perfect game? No,” admitted Lundqvist, who’s tied atop the NHL for most wins (12), and leads in save percentage (.946) and goals-against average (1.74).
“But I’d rather just find a way to win than play perfect and not win.”
Lundqvist attributes at least part of his glittering success this season to a new, lighter attitude he brought to training camp.
“I’m actually smiling during the games, which I never did for nine years,” he said, quoted by New York Daily News hockey writer Pat Leonard. “It’s a big difference. Smiling is good. … I think a lot of it’s just trusting your instincts. If you look at my game this year, I’m challenging (shooters) a little bit more, trusting my instincts, and we talked about going into this season to be a bit more aggressive.
“I’m more relaxed this year,” said Lundqvist, who in 2011-12 won the Vézina Trophy that Price won in a landslide vote last season, the Habs goalie 84 points clear of Nashville runner-up Pekka Rinne.
“I’ve always been intense. I’ve tried to take that down a notch and just be more aware. I think awareness has been the best part of my game so far, to be relaxed but at the same time have that level that I need.”
Lundqvist has won at least 30 games in all nine of his full NHL seasons; in six of those years, he had 35 or more, with a high of 39 in 2011-12, and had a leagueleading 24 in lockout-shortened 2012-13.
But no matter his early success this season, he said Monday, sounding like Price’s twin, it’s premature to be thinking of the 40-win plateau, which his Canadiens rival achieved with four to spare in his trophy-sweeping season last year.
“That’s too far away,” Lundqvist said. “It’s been feeling good so far, but I’ve been very focused on the process. My process is obviously good practices, but when I come to the game it’s just, ‘Next shot. What do I need to do to stop that shot?’ “
In the Canadiens’ end of the rink Wednesday will be the equally — at least — laid-back Price, who’d best keep his head up when Rangers’ Chris Kreider is in his neighbourhood.
It was Kreider who famously slid into Price during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final two seasons ago, knocking him out of Games 2-6 with a knee injury.
And it was Kreider whom Price flattened in October, the goalie leaning a “remember me?” shoulder into the Rangers forward behind the net before standing over him for a few seconds, studying him as Kreider took an inventory of his body parts.
So, with these two superstar goaltenders at opposite ends of Madison Square Garden ice, and with eight of the last nine games between the Canadiens and Rangers dating to Feb. 23, 2013, finishing in a shutout for either side, a 1-0 finish in a 12-round shootout Wednesday wouldn’t be a surprise in the least.
Which is exactly why, this being the NHL, it will probably be a blowout.
I’m more relaxed this year. I’ve always been intense. I’ve tried to take that down a notch and just be more aware.