I’ve had this argument over on the HFBoards for a while now, but I figure its worth at least mentioning here. In my personal and not so professional opinion, Henrik Lundqvist is the best goalie in the league. Better than Brodeur, Better than Luongo, better than anyone else. He’s just a step ahead. Honestly, if the guy would stop handling the puck behind his own net, he probably would have given up 3 fewer goals than he already has. Which is amazing considering hes had 3 shutouts already this year.
No goalie is better at stopping, and starting then Henrik. He goes from one shot, to getting square for the next shot in the blink of an eye. It is flat out scary how quick his lateral acceleration is. The funny thing is Henrik got a shutout while managing to kill a 4 minute penalty with 7 minutes to go in the 3rd, with one defenseman in the sin bin (Tyutin), one defenseman out with a hurt back (Malik), and one defenseman out after taking a puck to the face (Girardi). Thats 3 of your top 4 defenseman out of the play, not to mention the Rangers already have Straka, Avery and Callahan on the IR, who are all penalty killers (though Callahan not so much) in their own right.
The penalty kill was good, not great, but Henrik was freaking amazing. When the defense broke down, he was there. When the opposing forwards got their chances, he was there first. Its just ridiculous how good he was in this game. Let’s face it, this was a game we had no business winning. Although we got 2 goals, and certainly worked harder in the final 40 minutes than the prior 20, we definitely were not the best team on the ice. Washington deserved 2 points, and at least 4-6 goals, instead they get a shutout against and are winless in Madison Square Garden since around the time Michael Nylander had his first kid…
Take the 2 points, and run, that’s what I’m thinking here. We were lucky folks, don’t believe otherwise, the results didnt represent the reality of the game. 1 man won us this game, and right now, hes the best goalie in the league.