Between the Pipes

Between the Pipes

Last night’s appearance by James Reimer in San Jose made it official: all eight goalies, starters and backups, have had playing time in each conference final series. Though not surprising — Martin Jones had given up four goals at the time of Reimer’s entrance, and Jake Allen got the nod in an attempt to wake up the sleeping Blues — it raises a question. Just how important are goalies in the playoffs?

It’s clear that goaltending can make or break a team; we’ve seen teams with loads of talent disintegrate in the playoffs, as with the Dallas Stars. Neither Kari Lehtonen nor Antti Niemi as primary goalies will lead to a Cup in Texas. However, the differential between elite goaltending and above average goaltending doesn’t make a great difference for teams to go far in the quest for the Cup.

More importantly, the remaining teams in the playoffs possess two things that were absent in the Rangers short run: solid defense and concise bursts out of the zone. It’s apparent in the passing by the Sharks (paging Joe Thornton) and the speed of the Penguins.

Of the four remaining teams, the Blues and the Lightning were tied for goals against this season with 201, in a tie for fourth in the league. The Penguins came in next at sixth, and the Sharks paced a bit back at tenth. Aside from throwing out individual names, several of which were discussed on our podcast as potential Norris candidates, the defensive corps seem to just work cohesively for these teams.

Let’s be clear — this is not a cry to rid the Rangers of Henrik Lundqvist. It is moreso a request to be a bit more openminded about our expectations of Lundqvist and its relation to the success of the Rangers. Several comments on the post about Lundqvist a few weeks ago made it abundantly clear that his goaltending was seen as a negative, particularly in the Penguins series; this is outright incorrect. The defense was almost nonexistent at several parts of that series, along with the offense, which all in all equates to an early exit.

Perhaps the Rangers front office and coaching staff could take a deeper look at how the teams are built and how the players are utilized. We can talk ad nauseum about the shortcomings of this past team and why they failed, or we can look forward to understand ways to make the team better. Whether you support keeping the team as is with adjustments, moving some players, or a complete overhaul of staff and players, the one thing that will be necessary is cohesion, something that was blatantly missing from his year’s squad.

The Rangers will still have Lundqvist, and have him while he has not declined, which is a blessing. Management needs to not allow the remainder of the team to rely on Henrik to win games as they did last season.

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