Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Prince Who Would Be A King

Number one son stated it so well this morning over coffee: "Pundit, I think it's time you upgraded the Prince to a King." I've been holding out, while the mainstream media and most of the blogs have anointed him, due to a couple of reasons. One, he is still quite young, and two, and most important, Lundqvist hasn't won anything yet. As a start, the Rangers have not advanced past the second round in the previous three years of the Prince's reign. However, last night and so far throughout this series, Henrik Lundqvist has been absolutely outstanding and I doubt if there has been any other player in this year's playoffs who have approached his performance.

Whether you call him Prince or King doesn't matter as long as you recognize that the performance that Lundqvist is showing the hockey and sports world has been nothing short of sensational. Last night, 38 saves; Lundqvist was solid, scintillating, sensational and unbelievable. He finally cracked in his personal war with the Great Ovechkin, but he stopped him ten other times and his glove save on Alex Semin was out of this world. The understatement of the year award goes to John Tortorella who claimed that Lundqvist is a pretty good goaltender. Pretty good?

While Ovechkin was blistering the goalposts, cracking a glass pane and causing havoc all over the ice, it was a soft shot mishandled by Caps rookie goalie, Simeon Varlamov, off the stick of Chris Drury that turned the game around. Drury's soft shot could not be handled by Varlamov as Korpikoski drove to the net leaving the puck for Drury, whose wrister beat Varlamov for the game winner. What was of major significence was at the end of the game Tortorella was relying on the likes of Betts, Dubinsky, Callahan, Korpikoski, Sjostrom, Girardi and Staal, and the Prince, er the King to preserve the win. Now it's on to Washington to attempt to close out this series and crown a King.



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8 comments:

  • Down by the Seaside said...
     

    Who would have thought that after 85 games + 55 minutes, the Rangers would go with a youth movement!

  • The Thrill said...
     

    The Caps are up against the wall now..We'll see what they're made of now. Alex Ovechkinbetter step up and show the world what hes about

  • mike said...
     

    Down by the Seaside-You're never too old to learn baby, never too old.

  • mike said...
     

    The Thrill-As long as they have the Great One they are still a threat.

  • Jim said...
     

    Nice story Mike, I'm going to link it in the Gameday notebook on Blueshirt Banter.

    I've often said: Someday, the Richter vs. Lundqvist debate will be a good one. But not yet.

    Jim

  • mike said...
     

    Jim-Thanks for the plug. That would be quite a debate, wouldn't it? You think there is room for Eddie Giacomin in that debate?

  • Jim said...
     

    See, that's where we would need your expertise. The Rangers let Eddie go when I was a kid, so I don't have much memory of it. Dave Kerr deserves consideration too, although few know who he is. Had Gump Worsley not played on so many bad Ranger teams, he would have to be in the conversation too.

  • mike said...
     

    Jim-Then there is my personal favorite Chuck Rayner. Aah the Gumper. Had the pleasure of meeting him in a bar in Minnesota and I wish I had taped it.What a refreshing human being.

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