Rangers return to the NHL playoffs as Henrik Lundqvist watches from across the street
New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist gestures to fans during his jersey retirement ceremony at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
There are many ways one can measure how long it had been since the Rangers hosted a playoff game before Tuesday night.
Plenty of things have happened since May 9, 2017, when the Senators beat the Rangers, 4-2, at Madison Square Garden to close out a second-round series.
At that time, Aaron Judge had 17 career home runs and Pete Alonso had none.
Barry Trotz was coaching the Capitals, Tom Thibodeau was coaching the Timberwolves and Buck Showalter was managing the Orioles.
The Giants were, what, five head coaches ago? Who can keep track?
Kevin Durant played for Golden State. The Islanders played in Brooklyn. Pitchers hit in the National League.
You get the point: It’s been a while.
But as the Rangers prepared to return to the postseason spotlight, there was one reminder starker than the rest that a new era was at hand.
Sure, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad, who scored the Rangers’ goals on that May night in 2017, still are pillars of the overhauled roster.
But the man who was in goal was set to watch Game 1 on Tuesday night across the street from the Garden at MSG Networks studios, working as an analyst rather than a netminder.
“It’s very different, for sure, but I still feel the excitement,” Henrik Lundqvist said in a video call with reporters on Monday. “You know exactly how the guys are feeling right now . . . To get to this point, there's so much work. It's a grind all year.
“Now, finally, it’s so exciting these days leading up to the first game. You prepare. You watch a lot of tape to talk about your opponent. Definitely, that excitement is something that is still fresh for me, so it's hard not to be excited for the guys right now.”
The Rangers bought out the final year of Lundqvist’s contract before the 2020-21 season. He attempted to continue with the Capitals but never played for them before retiring because of a heart condition.
MSG snapped him up as a part-time analyst for this season, and he is slated to work every game of the first round for the network, which is carrying the action, in addition to national coverage on ESPN and Turner.
Lundqvist has seemed to enjoy the job, which keeps him close to the game and the only NHL franchise for which he played. He never won a Stanley Cup but made the team a consistent contender, including a run to the Final in 2014 before a five-game loss to the Kings.
The last time the Rangers hosted a playoff game without Lundqvist on the roster? That was on May 23, 1997, when the Flyers’ Eric Lindros beat Mike Richter with 6.8 seconds remaining for a 3-2 victory in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Lundqvist was 15 years old at the time. Igor Shesterkin was 17 months old.
Now the rebuild is complete, part of which necessitated moving on from Lundqvist and handing the reins to Shesterkin.
Lundqvist still is based in New York, and hopes to see his former franchise go far — perhaps all the way, for the first time since Richter and his friends won the Cup in 1994.
But rather than watch from inside the Garden or on television, he will be on the job again, this time wearing a fancy suit and talking into a TV camera.
Will it be easier for him to stay calm in that role, rather than simply being a fan?
“Whatever happens, you know exactly how they feel, win or lose, so in a way you feel like you're in there when it comes to the emotions,” he said.
“I'm not sure how it's going to feel, though. I was at the Garden the other night. I haven't watched a ton of games. I've been across the street. But just to come in the building and feel that atmosphere and the excitement, the adrenaline goes up. It's hard not to feel that.
“We'll see if I'm going to work every [playoff] game or if I sneak across the street to watch in person. We’ll see.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
