The New York Rangers made it to the second round largely thanks to goaltender Henrik Lundqvist’s efforts. He didn’t do it alone, but he was by far their best player with shutouts in Games 6 and 7 against the Washington Capitals.
In their second-round opener versus Boston, Lundqvist managed 45 saves, but the Rangers still suffered a 3-2 overtime loss.
If there’s one area that the 31-year-old netminder has fallen short in during his career, it’s been in playoff overtime games and it looks this time, it got to him.
“I’ve got to be really careful to ask myself the right question there,” Lundqvist said, according to the New York Daily News. “Because have I played bad in overtime? No. Can I score? No. Is it frustrating? Yes. It was terrible in overtime, but I’ve just got to stick with it, play my game and hopefully it will turn around.”
To be clear, Lundqvist doesn’t mean to imply that he was perfect or blameless for last night’s defeat. In fact, he put Brad Marchand’s game-winning goal on himself.
“I thought I made a bad decision,” Lundqvist told NHL.com. “I was too focused on the puck. I kind of knew (Marchand) was coming in the middle, but I was just too locked in on the puck.”
You can watch Marchand’s winner below:
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