New York Rangers: What's Wrong With Henrik Lundqvist?

The New York Rangers lost their two-game win streak in a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

Expecting better from his struggling starting goaltender, head coach John Tortorella, sat "hot" Rangers "back-up" goalie Martin Biron for the first time in two games, allowing Lundqvist a start.

Henrik Lundqvist finally made his return to the Rangers starting lineup, after sitting out two games due to his current struggles. Lundqvist had lost his previous two starts to the Colorado Avalanche and the Boston Bruins, and he hoped the struggled would end.

Well, the struggles shall continue for Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist has now lost three straight starts for the Rangers, including last night's 5-3 loss to the Lightning.

Some will say that Lundqvist should not be at fault for the embarrassing beatdown the Rangers were served by Tampa, but if you take time to review the Lightning's five goals, you may say otherwise.

Let's start with the first goal of the game:

An easy shot came from Lightning superstar, Steven Stamkos, who was situated in the right corner. His shot was saved by Lundqvist, but a rebound squeezed between Henrik's legs for an easy goal. The score became 1-0 Lightning.

The second goal was very similar to the first goal in that Steven Stamkos was the original shooter; Lundqvist left another easy knock-in rebound and the goal scorer was the same for Tampa (Ryan Malone).

The shot came from the right corner, off of Stamkos' stick, the rebound bounced off of Lundqvist chest and landed right on Malone's stick for an easy goal.

The score now became 2-0 Lightning at the end of the first period.

Yes, both goals were on the power play, I understand that, but the goals were weak and should have been saved by Lundqvist.

The third goal was not Lundqvist's fault, as it was a defensive lapse so we will shall skip over that particular goal.

The fourth goal, once again on the power play, was a very weak goal to allow. The original shot came from Lightning forward, Steve Downie, who was stationed in the middle of the face-off dots.

The original shot was saved by Lundqvist, but another soft rebound bounced off Henrik and the puck was jammed into the goal for a 4-0 Tampa Bay lead.

The fifth goal was a mix between a weak squeeze-through goal and a hard to see, screen in front of the net goal; I will leave the fifth goal up for debate.

But if you take a look at the goals, you will notice that three of the goals were soft and should not have been allowed.

The Rangers lost the game 5-3.

Decrease those three "soft" goals, and the Rangers might have a 3-2 victory on Thanksgiving Eve.

Lundqvist must get his act together, and he must do so fast.

First, it was a weak loss to the Bruins last Wednesday, then it was an embarrassing loss to the Avalanche on Friday (in which Lundqvist was pulled out of the game in the second period) and finally this loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Honestly, with the way Martin Biron has played this season, I would not mind him starting more than 25 games this season.

It's too early in the season to say that Biron should take Lundqvist's starting job, but if Hank continues to struggle and Biron continues to dominate, I would not mind a "double-starter" goalie rotation.

What I mean by that is a No. 1 starting goalie (Lundqvist) and a One-A goaltender (or a secondary starting goaltender), which would be Biron.

In a situation like this, you would have Lundqvist starting 50-55 games a season and Biron starting 30-35 games a season.

Again, it's too early to make goaltender decisions like that one, but if Lundqvist continues to struggle, it may be something the Rangers look into.

Anyways, I wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving, and sorry if this article seems a bit rushed (honestly, it was). I will be back tomorrow with some type of Rangers-Panthers pregame, but until then, thanks for the read!

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