Carolina Hurricanes: No more Lundqvist specialties at PNC Arena

For the first time in 20 years, the Carolina Hurricanes are going to plan an organization in the New York Rangers that does not have Henrik Lundqvist in their organization. There will be no more robberies from Lundqvist at PNC Arena. With the Swede officially retiring, there are no more worries of dominating the Rangers and getting Lundqvist’ed again.

Over the years, he has done it many times. PNC Arena had become Lundqvist’s home away from Madison Square Garden. It would see some of the best performances of his career, and some of the worst results during the dark times of the Carolina Hurricanes organization. Lundqvist annually had the best goaltending performance at PNC Arena, and that’s not a good thing.

With Lundqvist seemingly drinking from the fountain of youth every time he made his way into PNC Arena, it seemed that there was a wall that would not bend. Carolina could smack the Rangers up and down the ice, and goaltending would be the downfall. It always felt like Carolina would dominate a game and lose 1-0 in the shootout.

This was not only in the City of Oaks either. Hank was a big reason the Carolina Hurricanes went 9 years without winning at Madison Square Garden. It’s just an arena that has not been nice to the Canes throughout their history, and Lundqvist was a big part of that. If he had a bad night, Carolina’s goaltending would blow it. He was always just better than the guy at the other end.

Lundqvist did sign a deal with the Washington Capitals over the summer and seeing him in a different jersey would have just felt so wrong. Players that have that kind of legacy with a team just look wrong in the colors of a different team. That kind of legacy finding its way to another team just wasn’t going to feel right.

It also probably wouldn’t have been fun to see the Washington Capitals come to PNC Arena and get a vintage Lundqvist performance to win. But it would have felt so wrong looking at Lundqvist in Capitals colors.

Lundqvist never played for Washington because he underwent heart surgery, and I would like to ask for you all to hope for nothing but the best. No matter how much he annoys you on the ice, he’s a great person off it, and his retirement is a big blow for the game of Hockey. He’s not the loudest, but he’s certainly very entertaining.

However, it’s not all bad news. In his final ever professional game of hockey, Lundqvist gave up the first-ever hat trick scored by a Carolina Hurricane in the post-season, when Andrei Svechnikov netted a trio in game two of the Qualifying round in the 2019-20 post-season, as the Canes swept the Rangers to move into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the bubble.  So, there were ups and downs.

And so this chapter of Carolina’s struggles against a goaltender closes. Lundqvist hung up the skates two days ago and has decided to look for a new challenge upon leaving the game of hockey. It’s going to be a little weird, not being able to blame Lundqvist when the Canes lose to the Rangers from now on, but you can’t say he hasn’t earned his retirement.

Question for Cardiac Cane readers: What do you think about Lundqvist’s retirement?