Henrik Lundqvist has played extraordinarily well throughout the first half of the 2011-2012 NHL season. So well, that King Henry is lined up not only to win his first Vezina Trophy, but also to receive serious consideration for the Hart Trophy as well, the league's MVP award.
Lundqvist has had an exceptional start to his career, winning 30 or more games in all six of his seasons, and having career averages of a .920 save percentage and 2.28 GAA. This season has been far and away his best though.
If he's able to maintain his ridiculous play thus far, he'd finish with a better GAA and better save percentage than any modern era Vezina Trophy winner. By the numbers, it'd be better than the best year that Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur or Tim Thomas ever had.
Here's a quick rundown of the stats and figures for Lundqvist and the New York Rangers this season.
All statistics are as of February 2nd.
Lundqvist has guided the Rangers to an NHL-best 69 points through 49 games. The Detroit Red Wings, in the Western Conference, also have 69 points, but have amassed that total through 51 games played.
Most telling is that the Rangers only have scored 136 goals. Twelve teams in the league have scored more, but the Rangers have allowed the fewest, just 100. The emergence of All-Star defenseman Dan Girardi, and young blue-liners like Michael Del Zotto and Ryan McDonagh, are a major factor there, but Lundqvist is the centerpiece.
He's first or second in the league in the triple crown of NHL goaltending - Save Percentage, Goals Against Average, and Shutouts.
With a .939 mark, Lundqvist is the outright leader in save percentage, the most important of goaltending statistics.
After defeating the Buffalo Sabres, and outdueling goaltender Ryan Miller in the shootout, Lundqvist is now tied with a league-best six shutouts on the season.
He's tied for second in GAA, with a 1.82 average. However, the guy ahead of him, Brian Elliott of the St. Louis Blues, has only started 23 games and faced 608 shots, compared to Lundqvist's 37 games and 1,121 shots faced. The guy Lundqvist is tied with at the second slot, Tuukaa Rask, is Boston's number two goaltender behind Tim Thomas, and has started only 18 games and faced 516 shots.
It's a season for the record books so far, and one that should net him not only the Vezina, but quite possibly the MVP as well.
Sources: NHL.com, Hockey-Reference.com, Rangers.NHL.com
Jake Emen is a lifelong Rangers fan from New Jersey. He also runs the boxing news website ProBoxing-Fans.com. You can find more of his writing, along with interviews, rankings and breaking news stories at the site, or you can follow ProBoxing-Fans.com on Twitter, @ProBoxingFans.
