The New York Rangers entered the 2013 season with extremely high hopes, but along the way needed to trade their most talented scorer, Marian Gaborik, and eventually bowed out of the playoffs in five games to the Boston Bruins.
Head coach John Tortorella's seat is getting warm and Brad Richards, brought in to be one of New York's leading men, has been so bad that he was a healthy scratch in the playoffs. The only constant has been their goalie, "King" Henrik Lundqvist, who led the NHL in wins this year.
Lundqvist saved 1,102 shots this season and his .926 save percentage was the fifth-best in the entire NHL, third-best in the Eastern Conference. His contract is set to expire at the end of next season, and even though Rangers fans will surely clamor to lock up arguably the NHL's best netminder, Lundqvist is in no hurry to ink an extension.
"I'm going to talk to my agent and will see," Lundqvist said when asked about his future in the Big Apple. "I [have] had such a great time in New York. They've treated me really well and gave me the opportunity to play. It's been a lot of fun. I have one more year on my contract and we'll see."
Speculation has run amok that the "King" was unhappy with the Rangers uneven play; they ranked second to last in the Atlantic Division in terms of goals scored (130) and struggled to score power play goals all year.
Lundqvist called this season a "step back," and went on to say, "We went to the conference finals last year, we had high expectations for ourselves this year; it didn't go our way. So yeah, this is a step back, but it's tough to make it there."
We went to the conference finals last year, we had high expectations for ourselves this year; it didn't go our way."
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