Few players have anywhere close to the impact on their teams that Henrik Lundqvist has on the New York Rangers.



It sounds hyperbolic, but it’s far from an exaggeration. When he’s flying high, so is his team — and when he’s having trouble, they flounder alongside him.



When the 2018-19 season was just weeks from beginning, the Rangers weren’t atop anyone’s preseason predictions.



At the very best, they were expected to look like a promising but rebuilding roster. At worst, they were going to be the next team to make like the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche and bottom out.



Instead, they’re hanging with the Wild Card crowd in the Eastern Conference just over a quarter of the way through the season. They’ve won more games than they’ve lost, and they’ve managed to set a pace to put them near 85 points when the regular season is finished.



Few would credit that more to anyone on the Rangers...