Monday, May 19, 2008

Lundqvist Burned Out After Canadian Shelling

Dan Barnes at the Ottawa Citizen reports on why Henrik Lundqvist didn't play in the Bronze Medal Game of the Hockey World Championships...

"Liv was the surprise starter in the Swedish net for the world hockey championship bronze medal game at Le Colisée Pepsi. Henrik Lundqvist was shelled by Canada on Friday and complained of being burned out, so he wasn't an option for head coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson."

...while I should have been happy that Lundqvist bowed out of the Bronze Medal game because it meant one less chance of him getting hurt. I wasn't a big fan of Lundqvist sort of quitting on his team with a medal on the line. Doubt he'd ever do that to the Rangers, but it was a bit disconcerning.

Ken Campbell at The Hockey News reports on Team Canada assistant coach Pat Burns telling his players to shoot high on Lundqvist...

Canadian assistant coach Pat Burns told his players to go high on Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist in the semifinal and the strategy worked as Canada chased the Vezina finalist after scoring four goals.

“I did a helluva job, too,” Burns joked. “I should know, I’m with the Devils. We played (Lundqvist’s New York Rangers) 14 times this year and beat them once.”

...Lundqvist better work on this weakness in his game during the off-season as the word is out.

No comments: