Idle for so long, Lundqvist takes rap for Rangers

NEW YORK » The goalie’s team was weakened by injuries to their new regular starter and reliable forward Chris Kreider. It was sapped by a schedule that demanded three road games in four days, then an early start against the Flyers Sunday after only a one-day respite. It looked tired and out of sorts.

The goalie, a guy who used to be known around these parts as King Henrik Lundqvist, wasn’t much better. His problem had nothing to do with a weary body, but rather a rusted one after a weird benching that undercut his skills in what everyone is now acknowledging is the twilight of a great career.

For Lundqvist has only sat while his team has played so often and, until back-to-back weekend losses to the Flyers, so well of late. In fact, until this Sunday matinee game in the Garden that ended in a 5-3 Flyers victory, Lundqvist hadn’t started in the Rangers’ crease in nearly a month, and not because his body wasn’t up to it.

Had more to do with a guy named Igor Shesterkin, who until getting involved in a car accident in Brooklyn last week was playing off the charts for the suddenly revived Broadway Blueshirts.

That, and Rangers head coach David Quinn’s strange reluctance to play Lundqvist even in a real backup role amid a threegoalie rotation, has essentially served to take the Rangers’ best leader of the past two decades and relegate him to embarrassment.

That was supplied in the first two periods Sunday, when the Flyers riddled the rusty Rangers goalie. Less than five minutes into the second period, they had scored five times on Lundqvist, and by the way Quinn saw things ... hey, that King Hank did just fine, didn’t he?

“He made some big saves early,” Quinn actually said after Lundqvist allowed three goals on 13 first-period shots. “I thought we were really on our heels after the first one. He kept it at bay and you can’t fault him for any of them.” Oh. Actually, quite true. For as game-unready as Lundqvist was, his teammates seemed less prepared at the start, despite the Flyers easily disposing of them Friday night in Philadelphia. So much for motivation through humiliation.

“There’s no question special teams played a big part in this game,” said Lundqvist, referencing the Flyers’ scoring twice on the power play and once while shorthanded during the first period. “But when you haven’t played in a long time, personally, you want to go out there and build a good feeling. Obviously that was pretty tough when you give up three first period goals. I don’t think that was pretty good. A couple of tough situations, for sure. But I think we took some sloppy penalties that cost us and their power play was really good.

I was hoping for a better feeling personally going out there.”

Certainly Quinn was hoping for a better end result, but deep down after not starting Lundqvist for so long, he might have known that was unlikely.

“We all touched on how hard the situation is,” Quinn said. “Nobody is more sympathetic to the situation than I am. He and I had three or four conversations this week. We want to put him in a situation to succeed and I thought he was fine tonight. I don’t think Hank was our issue tonight. You may look at it statistically, but Hank was not our problem tonight.”

Lundqvist, who turns 38 Monday, has been sitting and wondering about his next career move while Quinn has been keeping an eye on what only recently became an important Rangers present while continuing to keep an eye on the future. To that end, Quinn had been consistently starting Shesterkin in net since the hot-shot goalie was promoted to Broadway on Jan. 6.

Until that time, the Rangers were getting by with Lundqvist’s diminishing skills and a limited backup in Alexander Georgiev essentially splitting duty. But Shesterkin, seasoned over several impressive years in the KHL, was fantastic earlier in the season with the Hartford Wolf Pack, going 17-4-3 with a 1.90 GAA and a .934 saves percentage in 25 AHL games. So even though his promotion would cause a logjam in the Broadway crease, they felt the time was right to see what he could do in the NHL.

Presto. Through 10 games, Shesterkin went 9-1 with a 2.23 GAA and head-turning .940 saves percentage. Then ... Change-o.

Shesterkin had a run-in with the American tradition of chaos on the roads and cracked a rib or two. He’s progressing but might be a couple of weeks away.

Now, somewhere along the line, Quinn expects Lundqvist to act as if he’s game-sharp and full of youth and vigor. Good luck with that.

“It is what it is,” said Lundqvist, who still has a pricey, $8.5 million cap hit of a season left on his Rangers contract (with a $5.5M buyout), and likely will be ending his 15-year Rangers career soon.

“I knew going into this game that it was going to be a great challenge for me to be on top of my game,” the one-time King added. “I’ve been working hard, but in the end it’s about how you focus and make good decisions. I have to learn from it and hopefully we can build off the next one.”

His choices limited, but his fingers firmly crossed, Quinn has no qualms in giving Lundqvist another chance, and soon. The Rangers’ recent run of nine wins in 10 games put them right into the playoff chase. But they can’t afford too many more lost weekends like this one.

Contact Rob Parent at rparent@21st-centurymedia. com. Follow him on Twitter @ReluctantSE.