Quote:
Originally Posted by The Ascension
Well, outside of this year and 2012, he has never had an above average team in front of him, and even in those years, the team in front of him had notable flaws and issues.
Do I think Lundqvist could have been better in this series? Yes, sure. That being said, he's not the one who has been turning pucks over to the Kings in prime scoring position, nor is he the one who has been unable to keep the Kings away from the front of the net.
I am fairly confident in saying that if the Rangers had Quick, they'd be in the same predicament they are now. Actually, no, I'll go further. If the Rangers had Quick, they wouldn't have gotten out of the second round.
For the record, this isn't me saying that Lundqvist is the ONLY reason the Rangers made it to the finals - he isn't. I think that saying he's the main reason is fairly accurate, though. That, and tremendous overall depth throughout the lineup.
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I mentioned before in this thread that I thought the Rangers always collapsed well around the net and their D-core has been very strong for years now. He's had a ton of support over the years. Maybe not the goal-support all the time, but great defensive structure around him to help him out. In a Conference as shallow as the East is, the Rangers are and were far from an average team.
I realize I sound very anti-Lundqvist, but I think he's one of the best goalies (albeit the pool of elite goalies is not very deep nowadays), and is certainly number 1 when you consider body-of-work in the regular season. But ultimately, I don't care about that if you drop-off in the playoffs, relative to his own level of play, and others.
I look at Rask the same way. He's so damn consistent for such long periods of time, but I don't have confidence in him coming up big all the time. He can even look dominant in the playoffs at times (outdueling Vezina winner Ryan Miller in 2010 while being an underdog, or holding Crosby/Malkin and company to 2 goals in a series), but I don't know if (or think) he has what it takes to elevate his game all the time like Quick does.