Sitting down at the podium and struggling with a query about Carolina backup goaltender Antti Raanta following the Hurricanes’ victory about the Rangers in Video game 2 of their second-spherical playoff collection, Brendan Smith’s thoughts drifted to Henrik Lundqvist.
Smith, who joined the Rangers for the duration of the 2016-17 season, was not in New York at Lundqvist’s peak. But the Carolina defenseman, who scored the initial purpose in the Hurricanes’ 2- gain on Friday evening, recalls the competitive intuition that manufactured Lundqvist fantastic.
“He by no means wished to be scored on, even in exercise, and he’d get upset when you did,” Smith said. “And it's possible that wore off on [Raanta], taking part in with him.”
To realize what Raanta, who backed up Lundqvist for two seasons on the Rangers, has completed for Carolina, demands very first comprehension what the Hurricanes shed when beginning goalie Frederik Andersen was misplaced to a decrease-body harm. In 52 games for the duration of the standard year, Andersen had a .922 help save proportion with a 2.17 goals-versus common.
“This calendar year, he was one of the greatest goalies in the league,” Hurricanes mentor Rod Brind’Amour reported.
Raanta experienced very good numbers as Andersen’s backup this season, as he has for most of his vocation. But he is a career backup — nevertheless a single who has stored the Rangers scoreless for the very last 116:05 of this series.
It is not really in the mould of what Lundqvist did when Raanta was backing him up. The Rangers had just 21 photographs on net Friday, without numerous Grade-A chances. The bulk of the credit score will rightly go to Carolina’s defense, which saved the Rangers’ major 6 completely vexed all evening, over its goaltender.
But the classes Raanta realized from Lundqvist are spending off.
“When I was in New York, certainly what Hank was carrying out there was eye-opening for me,” Raanta claimed. “He was, in 2015, that was most likely his seventh or eighth year in the league. Just about every year he was one particular of the finest goalies. I was like, ‘This is the rationale why he is the ideal goalie.’ He was generally performing, he was normally trying to get greater.
“Obviously [Benoit Allaire] in New York is a person of the greatest in the league as a goalie mentor and as a human getting. It was a ton of enjoyable to do the job with him and get to know Hank like that. Now you see [Igor] Shesterkin, he fights until the stop, he moves unbelievably and he will make the will save he has to. Often he would make those big highlight reel will save. It is definitely likely one thing that will come from New York.”
Raanta is not in a course with both of people names. But as a result of two video games of this collection, he has two victories and Shesterkin, the presumptive Vezina Trophy winner, has zero. Raanta did not lean into that just after Game 2, but he did say that acquiring Shesterkin across from him helps raise his match. As for the marveling above the narrative, he left that to his teammates.
“I just feel it is fairly remarkable what he’s accomplished, suitable?” Smith requested. “I consider coming in and harnessing the instant and stepping in and playing the way he is, it is phenomenal.”
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