This is a scenario that for the last 11 years has befallen other teams around the NHL, the ones that couldn’t depend on their goaltender and thus broke down repeatedly in their own end, if not all over the ice, in trying to cope with the uncertainty of never knowing when the puck would go in and from where.
But not the Rangers, not since Henrik Lundqvist effectively claimed the No. 1 job in nets from Kevin Weekes midway through the Swede’s rookie 2005-06 season. Issues up front? The Rangers have had those, all right. Issues on the back end? Oh, boy, have the Rangers had their share of those.
But in nets? Never. If there was one constant on Broadway, it was Lundqvist’s consistent excellence through which he infused his team with confidence night after night after night and allowed the Rangers to overcome deficiencies anywhere and sometimes everywhere else.
Until now.
In words that have most assuredly never been previously typed: Lundqvist has allowed 16 goals on 76 shots in 138:18 (.789/6.94) over his last seven periods after being torched for seven in 40 minutes Tuesday night at the Garden before being mercifully pulled for Magnus Hellberg in the Rangers’ 7-6 defeat to the Stars.
This is a crisis of confidence for the goaltender, who no longer looks at ease in making even the most routine save. And this is a crisis for the Rangers, who seem to be suffering a concurrent collective nervous breakdown of their own in front of the team’s signature athlete.
Lundqvist was both figuratively and literally helpless in this one, with his teammates appearing to have only the most casual acquaintance with the concept of playing defense in falling behind 7-3 by the 17:40 mark of the second period before a furious push in the third period produced a 25-4 shot advantage and several last-ditch chances to get at least a point.
“It’s not fair how we played in front of Hank,” Mats Zuccarello, who had three assists but was delinquent on Dallas’ third goal and final goal of the first period, told The Post. “For all the games and all the years that he helped us, we have to be there for him and help him now.
“We know he’s not at his best. This is the time for us to step up for him. The chances we gave up while he was in, it’s not right. We didn’t have any structure. The first two periods were embarrassing. We talked about it after the second period, how we had to back each other up and play with pride and heart. We did that, but it’s not a good feeling at all to know how we started the game.”
You know how Dallas started the game? With a 90-foot drive from the right boards by Stephen Johns. You think teams are unaware of the problems Lundqvist has had both right out of the hopper and on long ones? Think again. Lundqvist seemed to barely squeeze that one between the pads. Maybe he exhaled. Maybe so did his teammates. But maybe not.
Though there was only one real stinker out of the seven — Patrick Sharp’s wrap to the netminder’s right when for some unearthly reason he was looking behind the net to his left — never did Lundqvist seem confident. Never did the Rangers seem confident, either, as they raced (or alternately, moseyed) around in their own end, abandoning their posts, leaving Lundqvist on his own.
These were moments in time thought to have been frozen in the Hardy Astrom Era.
“I feel like it’s embarrassing, frustrating and disappointing,” said Lundqvist, who will get right back on the horse Thursday in Toronto. “Obviously when you’re looking for confidence and a good feeling, you’re hoping for a game where there’s a lot more structure and shots from the outside.”
The rule of hockey, though, is this: When there is no such thing as a routine save, there is no such thing as structure.
Last year, Lundqvist allowed a sum of six low-danger goals on 642 shots, per Corsica. This year, he had already allowed eight on 306 shots before the puck was dropped Tuesday. Last year, Lundqvist allowed a total of 34 medium- and low-risk goals on 1,135 shots. This year, already 33 on 512 shots.
It is time to stop comparing this Lundqvist season to any that have come before. It is not like 2013-14. There has never been anything like it. And there hasn’t been anything like it in New York for more than 11 years.