Keith Yandle explains unspoken Henrik Lundqvist rule he broke after joining Rangers in 2015
Keith Yandle was known throughout his 16-year NHL career as one of the better puck-moving defenseman of his day — and one of the most durable players in the League. In fact, the former New York Rangers’ blueliner holds the second-longest string of consecutive games played in NHL history, 989, trailing only Phil Kessel’s record of 1,064.
Yandle was also one of the friendliest and funniest players in the League. He was known as much for his quips and big smile as he was for being a three-time participant in the NHL All-Star Game and his five 50+-point seasons.
But it’s his big personality that almost landed Yandle in hot water after the Rangers acquired him in a trade with the Arizona Coyotes late in the 2014-15 season. That’s because around the Rangers in those days, there was an unwritten rule that no one bothered uber-intense goalie Henrik Lundqvist before a game.
No one, that is, except for the newest Ranger.
“I remember one of my first times in that area where the guys would eat at MSG, like a little lounge area, and Hank would come in wearing a three-piece suit looking like a dime with his headphones on, and I was like, ‘Hey, what’s up Hank?!’ and give him a high-five,” Yandle recounted on a recent edition of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast he co-hosts with Paul Bissonnette and Ryan Whitney. “And everyone is like ‘You do not talk to him on game day.” And I’m like, ‘Yeah, we do. We talk to him.'”
The story surely resonated with Lundqvist, the podcast guest sitting across the couch, when Yandle told the tale. Lundqvist laughed at the memory, though neither he nor Yandle shed any light on whether the defenseman approached The King like that again through their next season as teammates.
However, Lundqvist did explain his game-day intensity.
“I had days I don’t think I spoke. I was quiet on game days,” he said. “I think I got better over the years, but I was so in my head just thinking about the game and just kind of dealing with the pressure.”
Lundqvist grew even more reflective.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself, and maybe sometimes a little too much. That made me, maybe, a little intense at times.”
Henrik Lundqvist, Keith Yandle recall failed Cup run with Rangers in 2015
Lundqvist had a quip of his own when asked on the podcast what kind of teammate Yandle was.
“Great guy in the locker room. Maybe not the best shot blocker … but he wouldn’t screen me!” Lundqvist said, cracking up the co-hosts, including Yandle.
“But I was pretty intense, so it always great to have teammates that kind of made you smile every day. I loved that.”
Yandle helped the Rangers win the Presidents’ Trophy in 2014-15. He also had seven points (two goals, five assists) in the 2015 Eastern Conference Final, when the Rangers lost in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Overall, Yandle had 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in 19 postseason games that spring.
Lundqvist and Yandle discussed how decimated the Rangers’ lineup was when they dropped Game 7 against the Lightning at Madison Square Garden.
“I have to say, that I thought ’15 was going to be our year after losing the year before (in a five-game Stanley Cup Final to the Los Angeles Kings). In 2015 we had a great team,” Lundqvist explained. “But then we came up short against Tampa in Game 7.”
Then Yandle piped up.
“[Dan] Girardi had a broken foot. I had a separated shoulder. [Kevin] Klein had just broken his arm,” Yandle recalled, forgetting to mention how captain Ryan McDonagh also played with a broken foot.
That led to the former teammates discussing the Rangers’ other major injury that spring. Forward Mats Zuccarello took a slap shot to the head in the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins and didn’t play the rest of the playoffs because of a frightening injury.
“He couldn’t speak. He speaks like four languages and he couldn’t speak anything,” Yandle offered.
“He skated off the ice and he couldn’t say one word,” added Lundqvist. “It hit a part of the brain that controls your speech. … He came back about a week or so later and came to dinner and he was struggling speaking. Everyone was like, ‘Oh my God.'”
The 2015 run, which ended with a 2-0 loss at Madison Square Garden in Game 7, was pretty much the last go-round for that Rangers core, which had reached the conference final three times in four years. Yandle was traded to the Florida Panthers after the 2015-16 season — and shortly thereafter, the rebuild was on in New York.
Lundqvist had his contract bought out after the 2019-20 season and heart surgery soon followed, ending his career.
But as this interview pointed out, the good memories trumped the bad or bittersweet ones — and the special friendships still carry on.
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