The New York netminder is tied for the NHL lead with a .939 save percentage and second with a 1.81 goals-against average. He’s also 10th with 1,150 saves. But Lundqvist could rank a lot higher in that last category if he didn't have the benefit of playing behind a corps of Rangers defensemen who seem to take it as a personal affront that any shots actually reach their goaltender.
"We've got to do a lot of things in regard to that," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "They block shots from everywhere. That's part of their identity and part of their strength. You see everybody jumping everywhere to block shots, so we have to find a way to get shots through."
The Rangers are fourth in the league with 955 blocked shots as a team, though their average of 16.8 blocks a game is actually second-best. They picked up 22 of those in the first meeting with the Bruins back on Jan. 21 when New York squeaked out a 3-2 win with a power-play goal in the closing seconds of overtime.
"They're very tight defensively," Bruins forward Brad Marchand said. "They don't give up a whole lot and they block a ton of shots. We're going to have to find ways to get pucks and bodies to the net and get some greasy goals."
Those goals won't come easy. Ryan McDonagh, who had seven blocks in the first clash with the Bruins, is second in the league with 139 on the season, while fellow Blueshirt blueliner Dan Girardi is fifth with 133.
It's a total team commitment to the craft though. There are a dozen Rangers with at least 30 blocked shots apiece, with the first layer of defenders up front also contributing. Captain Ryan Callahan is fourth among the league's forwards with 60, followed by Brian Boyle in sixth with 56. Eleven different Rangers had at least one block in that January victory over the Bruins, when Boston managed just 34 shots, and two goals, on 66 attempts despite some of the heavy hitters the Bruins had launching blasts at them. That included reigning hardest shot champion Zdeno Chara, who got just two of his eight attempts on net, with five of the others blocked and one going wide.
"Your body takes a little bit of a beating," Bruins center Chris Kelly said. "Say you're blocking a shot by Zee there, it's going to leave a bruise. But that's part of the game too. They've bought in and they're willing to do it."
So what must the Bruins be willing to do to get through that defensive barrier?
"I think you have to get [the shots] off as quick as you can and not give the opponents time to get in your lane and time to block that shot," Marchand said. "Sometimes you have to shoot wide and shoot for guys' sticks or shoot for the end boards, whatever it may be just to try to get the puck around or close to the net."
The Bruins got a good warm-up for what they’ll face on Tuesday when they took on Nashville on Saturday. The Predators are 11th in the league with 840 blocked shots, 29 of which came against Boston as the Bruins needed a shootout to prevail 4-3.
"I thought we had a lot of opportunities to shoot, but there was a lot of them blocked," Julien said of the Nashville game. "There was a lot of them that got through, but nonetheless we’ve got to try to get more through than we did the last time [against New York]."
The Bruins do have to be careful they don't alter their game too much to try to counter New York's shot-blocking tendencies.
"I don't think you want to change your game too much for any team," Kelly said. "Obviously they do block a lot of shots. They sacrifice themselves. But I think it's one of those things that you need to focus on getting the puck through and battling that much harder."
The Bruins could also work a bit harder at the other end of the ice and show a better commitment to blocking a few more of the Rangers' shot attempts. Boston ranks 26th in the NHL with 694 blocked shots, just 13.1 a game. Dennis Seidenberg leads the way with 113, but that tied for just 18th in the league and no other Bruin is in the top 40.
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