There have been milestones in the past, and there likely will be many more. But big round numbers are always attractive.
So as Henrik Lundqvist prepared to go for career win No. 400 on Saturday night at the Garden against the last-overall Avalanche, he took a moment to reflect on what has been an inconsistent year for him personally in the midst of a career that has been anything but.
“Obviously every time you reach a milestone, you think back a little bit,” Lundqvist said after Friday’s practice, having passed his boyhood idol, Dominik Hasek, with win No. 390 in Denver on New Year’s Eve, making him the winningest European-born goaltender in NHL history.
“Recently, I tied Hasek, that was definitely a moment when you start to think about the people that helped you, and the players you played with,” he said. “There have been a lot of players that have come and gone here throughout the years, a lot of great memories. And reaching 400 is special.”
What has been most encouraging for the Rangers is that Lundqvist has steadied his own game during this four-game homestand against Western Conference teams, which they hope to sweep with the finale Saturday. In his past four starts — including a game in Buffalo on Feb. 2 — Lundqvist has given up a total of eight goals while stopping 142 of 150 shots for a save percentage of .947.
Before this, there were a few weeks of stops and starts, with Lundqvist sitting a healthy backup for a career-high four straight just before Christmas, then that three-day holiday break, soon followed by the Rangers’ five-day “bye week” from Jan. 8-12, and then the All-Star break over the final weekend in January. Occasionally, he sprinkled in a good game here and there among a few bad ones, but it was hard to get anything really rolling in the right direction.
Until now.
“Coming back from the All-Star break, I felt really ready to get going and get a lot of ice time here, work on my game and feel really comfortable out there,” Lundqvist said. “Try to get momentum built.”
It also helps the Blueshirts have found a way to turn around their fortunes at home, where they had struggled for over a month. The fact this milestone for Lundqvist can come in front of the Garden faithful was not lost on coach Alain Vigneault when he was making the decision of who would start when.
“He’s got a real special relationship with our fans, it should mean a lot to him and to our fans to be able to do it here at home,” Vigneault said. “Four-hundred wins is a lot of wins. For him to continue what he started at the beginning of the week, the way he’s playing, it’ll be great for him and especially great for our team.”
Lundqvist will turn 35 on March 2, and there are a lot of reasons the kid from Are, Sweden, who was taken in the seventh round of the 2000 draft, has made it this far. One is renowned goaltending coach Benoit Allaire, who has been here since Lundqvist showed up for that first training camp in 2005-06.
“I think the most important person here for me, ever since I got here, was Benoit Allaire,” Lundqvist said. “To have the consistency, to have a guy that is so positive and so much structure in the way he works — it’s just been great to get to know him a little bit. He knows me really well, how I work, how I feel. It’s just fun to come to work.”
And it will be fun Saturday at the Garden, when all the work could result in another big milestone in Lundqvist’s career, which notably does not include a Stanley Cup. But there are only 11 goaltenders left in front of him on the all-time wins list — topped, of course, by Martin Brodeur and his untouchable number of 691.
“I try not to reflect too much. I’m still in the middle of things, and I just want to keep going,” Lundqvist said. “But it’s always fun when you take a quick second to look at the names and realize you’ve done something special.”
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