Another season begins, and more milestones start coming for Henrik Lundqvist.
The 37-year-old netminder started his 14th straight regular-season opener for the Rangers during their 6-4 win over the Jets on Thursday night at the Garden. The only other goalie in league history who has at least 14 straight starts in the opener for one franchise is Martin Brodeur with 18 straight for the Devils.
It was win No. 450 for Lundqvist, just four wins shy of tying Curtis Joseph for fifth on the league’s all-time wins list. Now in his 15th season, Lundqvist also passed Mike Richter for the most seasons with at least one appearance by a Rangers goalie.
Just to top it off, his 43 saves tied the most for a Rangers goalie in a season opener since Gump Worsley in 1955.
“I will reflect when it’s time to do so,” Lundqvist said. “But right now, it’s nice to get the first one of the season. The way we battled, the way I battled — build momentum.”
Lundqvist looked refreshed during training camp following two straight disappointing seasons when the club sold off assets at the trade deadline and missed the playoffs. He faltered late in the season each of the past two years, so the plan is to play him a little less — and he got quite a workload in his first game of the season.
“Intense game, a lot of chances right in front,” Lundqvist said. “So it’s a good first test. I’m happy the way I had to battle, and the team had to battle, and that we’re off to a good start.”
Defenseman Adam Fox made his NHL debut and the Long Island native and childhood Rangers fan had some wobbly times during his 12:24 of ice time.
“I thought he got better and better as the game went on,” coach David Quinn said. “Listen, a kid from New York, season-ticket holder his whole life, I can’t even imagine what was going through his mind when this game started.”
Quinn said that the team is “very comfortable with where we’re at with our leadership,” so the Rangers entered a second season without a captain. The four alternate captains were Mika Zibanejad, Marc Staal, Chris Kreider, and Jesper Fast.
Staal tied Vic Hadfield for seventh place on the franchise all-time games-played list with 841. He also entered his 10th season as an alternate captain, with the only other two Rangers to wear either an ‘A’ or a ‘C’ for 10-plus years being Brian Leetch (13 seasons) and Mark Messier (10 seasons).
Brendan Smith played the dual role as a fourth-line winger and penalty-killing defenseman, and was rewarded with an empty-netter with 16 seconds remaining. His place in the lineup made Greg McKegg and Micheal Haley the healthy scratches.
https://nypost.com/2019/10/04/henrik-lundqvist-reaches-all-sorts-of-milestones-in-rangers-opener/
2019-10-04 08:30:00Z
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