The Fallen King

by Anthony Strait, OTSL Panelist

They say that a king can elevate those around him to unimaginable levels of greatness. A good king can also be elevated by those around him to protect his kingdom in times of peril. For 13 seasons a king resided in New York; his kingdom is the small piece of real estate between the pipes at Madison Square Garden. Henrik Lundqvist earned the nickname “King Henrik” because he did what most kings do: give their people hope. Rangers fans and opponents alike knew with Lundqvist in net, the Blueshirts were always in line for victory; and since 2005, 33^rd Street and 7^th Avenue was Henrik’s castle.

The 2017-18 season however has seen the Rangers struggle to possibly their first non-playoff season in seven years. Like a kingdom defeated in battle, the front office waved the white flag in the hopes of a brighter future. Core players like Rick Nash and Captain Ryan McDonagh have been traded in an attempt to rebuild. King Henrik has become a victim of father time; no longer capable of carrying his team through an entire NHL season. Now the Rangers and their fans must face the inevitable future where the king finally relinquishes his crown and steps aside. The thought of Lundqvist being traded is as real as it has ever been.

The Rangers struggles are not all on Lundqvist shoulders, but when you have been the franchise player for over a decade the blame goes with the territory. Defensively New York has been a nightmare, allowing 34 shots against per game. Injuries and inconsistent play have left the great goalie to play beyond what he is capable of at the age of 35. Lundqvist has been pulled at least four times since the All-Star break and he has shown signs of losing a step. Shots that he stymied in the past with ease now find the back of the net with more regularity. His record as of February 27^th is a mediocre 23-21-5 and he’s allowing close to three goals per game.

But for a three month stretch however the King showed that he was again up to the challenge of leading the Rangers on the quest for that elusive Stanley Cup. He posted a save percentage of .927 in November, .936 in December and .921 in January. It was his play that helped the Rangers stay competitive in the season’s first half. It was enough to land him in the All-Star game as the Rangers representative. Lundqvist had once again lifted the Rangers on his shoulders as he had done for so many years, but at the age of 35 and with declining talent around him, it would not be sustainable.

So now the man who has won a Vezina Trophy and holds a record for consecutive game seven wins yielded to a rookie making his second start in the NHL. For a man who has carried a team for so long, this was not the ending anyone pictured. It seemed like only yesterday the King was at his best as the Rangers won their first Eastern Conference title since 1994. The man who led Sweden to an unlikely gold medal in 2006 and holds several team and league records now sits helplessly and watches as the kingdom he built crumbles.

Such is the cruel fate to a season that went horribly wrong just days after a fun, emotional win in the Winter Classic. The team’s future is uncertain and Lundqvist’s own future with the Rangers is no longer a sure thing. His salary may be difficult to move in a trade, but with a decline is there a remote chance of him becoming an expensive has-been backup? Such is the unfairness of royalty. One cannot stay at the top forever. The Rangers are at the bottom of a tough Metropolitan Division and will, in all likelihood, miss the postseason. Another year lost for Henrik in trying to win his first Stanley Cup championship.

The fall of a king can be attributed to many factors. The loss of manpower; father time; decline in those around him; and self-sabotage. This season Henrik Lundqvist has been the victim of all of the above. The king will spend the last two months of the season watching the very kingdom he built at the corner of 33^rd Street and 7^th Avenue collapse.

Lundqvist’s future with the team may be in doubt but his legacy is not. It’s more than enough to have him in the Hall of Fame one day. It truly is good to be the king…until the head that wears the crown can no longer bear the burden.

We Call Them Knights

by Anthony Strait, OTSL Panelist

October 17^th 2017: Thousands of fans converge on T-Mobile Arena on a pleasant Tuesday night. Yours truly was among the fans getting their smart phones scanned to enter the building. Las Vegas is known as a great vacation destination for a variety of reasons and I explored a few of those earlier in the day. Checking out the casinos, eating at In-and-Out Burger, and even watching the Yankees play the Astros in Game Four of the American League Championship Series at a local bar. As the fans made their way into the arena it felt more like a party vibe with activities for the fans and a rock band playing outside the New York New York Hotel and Casino adjacent to the venue. Except this wasn’t a concert or a UFC fight card; the event on this night was a professional hockey game.

            

Why is that important to point out? Why paint this kind of picture for a hockey game? 500 yards away stood the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. Two weeks prior, the famed Vegas strip that is usually full of energy and excitement gave way to unspeakable horror and a tragedy we all felt. The evening of October 1^st saw a lone gunman open fire on innocent people who were simply having fun at a country music festival. Madness laid its head on the 32^nd floor and rained bullets down on a crowd of over 22,000 for reasons no one will ever really know. 58 people lost their lives while 851 people were injured and over 400 needing to be treated for gunshot wounds. It became the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history, somehow topping another tragedy that took place at Pulse night club in Orlando just one year prior.

            

It’s the kind of scar that won’t go away for a very long time, if ever. As a New Yorker I still recall like yesterday frantically calling in search of my brother who worked a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center on September 11^th 2001. The relief of knowing he was safe later gave way to the sorrow of watching my hometown hurting in more ways than one. Now, here I was in Las Vegas a few weeks after the shooting and the wound was as fresh as you can imagine. I shared an Uber with a local when I was going to my hotel after my flight and I can remember her saying “Everything is somber, the strip may never be the same again”.

Sure enough the strip was quiet albeit for a few tourists making their way from a show. I just kept thinking to myself was this a good time to be here? How can I live life to the fullest when so many are still reeling from a nightmare, that like so many tragic events, no one saw coming? Even the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign became a makeshift memorial with flowers now dying after a few weeks, laid alongside cards, burnt out candles and police tape. The Mandalay Bay didn’t represent a crime scene as much as it represents an ominous grey cloud of death and chaos that was visible for miles. You just couldn’t turn away from staring at it no matter how hard you tried, it was that glaring.

            

Back to the night of October 17^th. So I made my way up the massive escalator that would take me to my seat. The lineup card that workers handed out was as big as a NFL coach’s play chart so I simply folded it and put it in my back pocket. The fans of both teams, the Buffalo Sabres and the expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights, along with a few fans of other teams filled T-Mobile Arena. Who were these Golden Knights? With so many hockey-rich traditional cities for a team to call Las Vegas, Nevada home didn’t exactly scream frozen ponds and hockey pucks. In pure Vegas style the marching band in a makeshift castle at the East end of the arena played loud enough to be heard in Reno and a video intro right out of Game of Thrones ushered the new kids on the NHL block onto the ice. Even local resident and WWE star Dean Ambrose literally sounded the alarm to hype up a sold out T-Mobile Arena. The next few hours would answer a few questions I had walking into that building.

            

The Golden Knights came into existence on June 22, 2016 as they were voted unanimously to become the National Hockey League’s 31^st franchise. Their role as the city’s first sports franchise would come into play later on. The foundation for a startup franchise had to be put into place. Gerald Gallant was hired to be the franchise’s first head coach on April 13, 2017 while affiliations to minor league teams were announced. Weeks later the team participated in the expansion draft. They picked one player from each of the other 30 teams that were basically left for the scrap heap. Notable names like former Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup winning Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and James Neal, who played across from Fleury in the final as a member of the Nashville Predators, were now teammates looking at a new beginning. No one expected much from the newbies as far as the season was concerned. Many were skeptical about the interest from fans and how long it would last when the inevitable losing kicked in and the reality of a hockey team in Sin City finally set in.

Then October 1^st happened and interest gave way to a welcome distraction and a new normal in the face of a city trying to recapture any semblance of normalcy. The Golden Knights made their presence felt within the community on and off the ice. Before their home opener first responders and those who stopped to help the wounded were honored as the heroes they are in an age where the word “Hero” is thrown around all too frequently. The Golden Knights, a team of castoffs starring into the unknown, jumped out to an 8-1 start to the 2017-18 regular season. One of those early wins took place the night of October 17^th.  

Amidst a fun environment, friendly banter with fans of all teams, even a few fellow Rangers fans that were in attendance, and some good food, the first overtime in team history took place. David Perron’s second goal of the night 3:52 into overtime gave the Golden Knights a 5-4 victory. The crowd went home happy and as I walked along a busy Vegas Strip all seemed right in the world; if even for a brief moment. The Mandalay Bay didn’t seem as ominous as before. Locals and visitors were having fun again. Sin City felt like its nickname again if only temporarily. It then dawned on me that Vegas didn’t need the NHL as much as the NHL needed Vegas.

            

The All-Star break sees the Golden Knights as arguably the year’s best story amidst a national tragedy. Las Vegas has the best record in the Western Conference and second best overall. They beat more traditional teams like the Rangers, Blackhawks and Bruins. They even have wins over both Stanley Cup Finalists (Penguins and Predators) during this remarkable debut season. The Knights sit just one win shy of the All-Time record for wins by an expansion team in a single season with plenty of hockey left to play.

They won with a Goalie-By-Committee lineup for a stretch when Andre-Fleury was injured. They won in high scoring shootouts just as often as they found ways to grind out wins in defensive gems. This team has more and more taken on the identity of a city whose reputation is taking on a change of its own. It is becoming a town where the people like their hockey team; refuse to be slowed down; and is simply too loud and proud to go quietly into the night. This Cinderella not only is capable of partying past Midnight, she just might party deep into June and toast the town with the Stanley Cup itself.

A knight is a symbol of nobility and honor. As the city’s first major franchise, the Golden Knights thus far have honored those who still mourn by continuing to reach out in the community they call home. Recently they even implemented a “kids-only” policy that prohibits anyone over the age of fourteen for requesting autographs at practice. It’s almost a throwback to the young squires who looked up to and emulated the knights they would one day become themselves. No matter how the season finishes, the Golden Knights have already cemented themselves as winners even if it’s not on the scoreboard or the standings. On the same city block where darkness casts its shadow lays a team that has embraced the city as much as the city has embraced them in its time of need. 

They are no longer a cast of throwaways, they are the Western Conference’s best team. They are Knights and like in a game of chess, the knight is a powerful tool used to win the battle. The Knights and Las Vegas are determined to win the long term battle…one golden day at a time.