King Hits Milestone

Talent. One of the rare things in this world that people can posses that makes them different, at least in one regard, then anybody else. Some have it at playing music. Some have it at making art. Some have it in an athletic form. Coming from that athletic form. When it comes to hockey, stopping a puck takes athletic skill, and a little bit of a different mindset. If you have the mental tools to get in the net and stop a piece of rubber flying at you quick, you have what it takes to play pro hockey. Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers is one of those guys. He has been one of the top goalies in the sport for a while now, but what he did on Saturday put him in another level.

This past Saturday, when the Rangers beat the Colorado Avalanche at home, a 4-2 victory, Henrik Lundqvist picked up career win #400. He became just the 12 netminder in the leagues one hundred year history to collect 400 or more wins. Hank's first win in the NHL came all the way back on October 13th, 2005. It was a 4-1 at home against the Devils. He is the winningest goaltender in Rangers history and the winningest non-Canadian-born goaltender in NHL history. To make this milestone more impressive is the fact that Hanks is now just one of three goalies to ever collect 400 or more wins with one team. Martin Brodeur and Tony Esposito are the other two. Another side note is that this win came at Madison Square Garden, where Hank has collected 225 of his career wins. And if those numbers weren't surprising enough, consider this. Hank is one of four goalies ever to have won 300 times with their only team. The other three guys? Mike Richter (301 wins with NYR), Turk Broda (302 wins with Toronto) and Marc-Andre Fleury (371 Wins with PIT).

One of the biggest knocks that has been put against Hank is that he has failed to help lead the Rangers to a Stanley Cup title, even though they came oh so close in 2014. He's one of the best that has ever stepped foot in the crease, that argument can now be put to rest with win number 400 in the bag. The cherry on top of the sundae would of course be the Cup ring. If there's any other knock that can be made against the Rangers stud netminder its the fact that he played in the shootout era. He hasn't had to deal with that evil thing known as a tie. So you could put that as a little asterisk. At the same time, you still have to be able to stop shooters in the shootout, you still need to keep the puck out of the back of the net. Hank has done that very well in his career. He will have a ticket to the Hall of Fame when his career is over, of this I have no doubt.

Not a bad career for a guy who was picked 205th overall in the 2000 draft. Congratulations to Henrik Lundqvist on collecting career win #400!