When the New York Rangers were in a tough spot against the New York Islanders on Saturday, an impassioned pep talk didn't come from the behind the bench. It came from Lundqvist as he readied to go in net in relief of starter Ondrej Pavelec.
Lundqvist got the call at 6:51 of the second period after the Islanders took a 5-1, but had a few encouraging words for his teammates before he took his spot between the pipes.
"I felt like we needed to take a deep breath and try to refocus a little bit," Lundqvist said. "We were jumping into plays we were not supposed to. Most of the goals were odd-man rushes. We stepped up, they used the boards and they were coming at us. It was a day where they took advantage of us not playing a really good game. It was tough to watch. It was a tough game to play. We just have to regroup here fast."
The Islanders won the game 7-2. It was the Rangers' first game after their five-day break and Lundqvist's point about regrouping fast was an important one.
Their next game is Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.
