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New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist missed his second straight day of practice Tuesday. According to the team, he is dealing with a "minor issue." His status for Thursday's game in Philadelphia is questionable.
"I can't say 100-percent sure that [Lundqvist] is going to be good to go on Thursday, but I can't say 100-percent sure that he's not going to be there," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said Tuesday "He's getting better. He's got something that he's been dealing with here for a little bit of time, and since we had four days in between games we figured it was the right time to try and nip this in the bud here."
That "minor" issue may be the reason Lundqvist has not seemed like himself lately. The 31-year-old former Vezina Trophy winner has struggled, along with the team. Most recently, he gave up four goals in the team's 4-0 loss to the Devils, a shutout defeat that sank the Rangers to 2-5-0 to start the season.
Lundqvist, who has been remarkably consistent and durable during his time in New York, is 2-4-0 with an .890 save percentage and 3.45 goals against average. And though his numbers leave a lot to be desired, any sort of injury that could prevent him playing could be devastating to the already injury-depleted team.
Save for the lockout-shortened season, when he made all but five starts, Lundqvist has played at least 62 games a year since 2006-07. He now has a new backup -- the recently-recalled Cam Talbot -- because of veteran Martin Biron's retirement.
Lundqvist is also in a contract year as his camp and the Rangers try to work out a multi-year extension, though talks have not yet yielded any progress.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/hockey/post/_/id/15085/lundqvist-out-with-minor-issue
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=687931
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