Rangers need Lundqvist more than ever

WASHINGTON -- Henrik Lundqvist says he doesn't feel much different in these playoffs than he did in his first playoff go-round, five years ago.

His team is completely different, of course -- Lundqvist is the only Ranger left from the team that was swept by the Devils in the 2006 playoffs -- but they are a similar group, a team that is learning how to become a winner the way that first post-lockout team, the first Rangers playoff team in nine years, had to learn that very same thing.

The difference is that team had a 24-year-old rookie in goal.

Lundqvist is now 29 and the most important Ranger on the ice, as he will be again Saturday when the Rangers try to stave off elimination and try to prevent losing their seventh playoff game in the last eight to the Caps, dating back to 2009.

Lundqvist is still an emotional player, but his mental makeup has

gotten stronger as the years have gone on.

"It's not like you solve anything, or figure it all out," Lundqvist said after the Rangers practiced Friday before heading down here.

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"You just try to grow and learn from your past experiences."

After that quick exit in 2006, Lundqvist got his first playoff victory a year later, then his first playoff series win. Another series won the following year. But his mental toughness has been tested these last two-plus seasons, from the Rangers blowing a 3-1 lead to the Caps in 2009 to last season's shootout loss to eliminate the Rangers on the final day of the season to this year's roller-coaster ride in the final regular-season weekend.

And to now, when the Rangers need to dig deep yet again to keep playing this postseason. That there are zero questions about Lundqvist's ability to come up with a good enough game for the Rangers is not a surprise; it's hard to say exactly what he's done wrong on any of the Caps' 11 goals this series, except perhaps failing to tie

up a couple pucks.

"For me personally, I know what I have to do [Saturday]," he said. "I

don't think too much about the what-ifs, the consequences if we win or lose."

Part of his maturation came from just such a situation. He admitted to a little "what if?" thinking during that fateful shootout in Philadelphia last April, when Claude Giroux beat him for the only shootout goal to propel the Flyers to the playoffs.

He was similarly left wondering after the Rangers beat the Devils exactly two weeks ago and had to wait and see whether they would get in. That Saturday night, at a midtown bar, Lundqvist was an emotional wreck watching the Lightning take down the Hurricanes to let the Rangers into the postseason.

But on the ice, he hasn't betrayed much. Where some of his veteran teammates were ahead of him in experience and control of their emotions five years ago, Lundqvist is the one leading the way now, as reliable and focused as any goaltender in the league.

"In that (mental) aspect, I've seen improvement from him," John Tortorella said. "And his play, the last quarter of the season, has improved."

There's room for improvement up and down this Rangers lineup, from a dismal power play to three blown leads out of four third periods for a team that prided itself on strangling opponents once they got a lead.

In goal, the Rangers have no concerns. Not if Lundqvist can steal a game Saturday, or if he's simply not enough to hold off the Caps formidable attack.

The results may end up looking very similar to five years ago, and it's the same guy in goal. But there is a world of difference.