Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Rangers crush Canadiens, but Lundqvist questionable for Sunday

Henrik Lundqvist

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist of Sweden stops a shot in the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010. The Rangers won 4-1. (AP Photo)

AP

In one of the best settings of the season, the New York Rangers exploded for five goals in the first period to coast to an important 6-3 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden on Friday night. For 57 minutes, all of the news was good for the Rangers and their fans as they solidified their hold on a playoff spot. But with three minutes left, Benoit Pouliot collided with Henrik Lundqvist, forcing the New York goaltender’s neck to snap backwards. He was tended to on the ice by the Rangers’ trainer and finished the game, but admitted the neck started to stiffen in the last few minutes of the game.

The Rangers have been playing well as of late; they’re currently riding a 3-game winning streak at the most important time of the season. But no matter how well the 18 skaters are playing in front of him, the Blueshirts can ill-afford to lose King Henrik for any period of time. Lundqvist described the play to reporters after the game:

“The tough part here is that I really didn’t see him coming,” said Lundqvist, who did not meet with members of the media until a full hour after the game was over. “My head was leaning forward and I took a pretty hard hit there. But we checked everything, X-rays were good, it’s just that my neck is very stiff and sore. We’ll see how it is when I wake up tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be sore for several days.”

Lundqvist said that he never blacked out from the hit, and he did not hit his head when he fell backwards. He admitted that it was difficult for him to play the final three minutes because his neck kept getting stiffer, and it was becoming very hard for him to turn his head.

As to whether or not he will be able to play Sunday in Pittsburgh against the Penguins, Lundqvist -- who has started 16 consecutive games -- said, “My goal is to be ready on Sunday.”


It certainly sounds like the Rangers are taking every precaution with their prized goaltender. In real-time, it looked like the type of incident where a player could suffer whiplash—which possibly explains the stiff neck. Anyone who has ever been in a car crash can tell you a neck injury can be worse the next morning than immediately after the incident. We’ll probably know more about the extent of the injury tomorrow morning.Quote machine John Tortorella was asked about the play during his post-game press conference on Friday night. He answered with the candor we’ve come to expect:

“He’s OK. It certainly wasn’t intentional, it was just a hockey play, but he’s OK.

You’re talking to a guy who thinks “that’s hockey.” We try to take care of the blue [crease], we try to get to their blue, and when there’s contact, I think that’s part of the game. We certainly don’t want to lose or goalie or (for him) to get hurt, but I’m not going to sit up here and whine about that stuff. I think too much whining goes on. I think that’s a big part of hockey is trying to make plays there.”

The most important thing here is Lundqvist’s health, but it’s refreshing to see a coach in a post-game interview acknowledge an injury can happen in the normal course of a game. Increasingly, coaches are quick to point the finger and campaign for a punishment to settle the score. Tortorella wants his team to play with grit in passion in front of the net and understands when an opponent does the same. We hear over and over with the headshot debate about “players making a hockey play.” It may come off as empty rhetoric, but in this case, a hockey player was just making a hockey play in the crease.