NY Rangers: Lundqvist's Vezina Hopes Helped by Location, Location, Location

This NHL season, many would consider New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist to be the runaway favorite for this season’s Vezina Trophy. While King Henrik is having a great season worthy of Vezina consideration, his status as the clear favorite are largely due to a major big apple philosophy of location, location, location.

Lundqvist has no control over the fact that he plays in a city where the media covers his every move and where every highlight save is replayed all night on MSG Network. All of his media attention really has no effect on the reality that Lundqvist has really taken an already skilled Rangers team and helped lift them to the top of the Eastern Conference.

Far from the bright lights of the Big Apple, in the Midwest metropolis of St. Louis, Brian Elliot has been quietly setting the world on fire. After being brought to St. Louis to back up Jaroslav Halak, Elliot has played nothing like a backup.

Taking nothing away from Halak and his top-five status in save percentage, goals against average, and shutouts, Elliot has emerged as the more dominate goalie of the pair. Elliot leads the league with a 1.56 goals against average and is tied for the lead with a .940 save percentage.

Dominate stats are only part of what makes Elliot so great, because Elliot also leads the team in wins with 20. Being a goalie selected to the all-star game is very impressive and an honor, but it is even more impressive when a goalie is able to make the all-star roster when they are the backup on their own team.

The city of Phoenix had no idea what would happen to their team when Ilya Bryzgalov, who was the rock of the Coyotes for the past several season, left for “greener pastures.” After seeing how the season has started for their former star, Bryzgalov, it is safe to say that Coyotes’ fans are more than happy to have Mike Smith between the pipes.

While Smith’s numbers are not numbers that scream top-level goalie, when anyone watches Smith play for the Coyotes this season, they can see that he has played the most important part in keeping the Desert Dogs in the playoffs. The Coyotes rank eighth in the league with only 147 goals against, which shows how solid Smith has been playing for a team with a plus five rating.

Lundqvist is having a great season, but it is important for fans to recognize that there are some very talented goalies playing in some locations where they might not get the coverage that their talents deserve.

When the season ends and the dust has settled, all of the players will meet in Las Vegas for the NHL Awards, and people should pay close attention to the Vezina voting, because it should be a much closer race than anticipated.