Henrik Lundqvist on vascular injury: 'It could have been worse'

When the New York Rangers announced that star goaltender Henrik Lundqvist would be out with what was termed a “vascular” injury, internet search engines for Rangers fans and hockey scribes fired up. What did this mean? It was indeed quite vague after all.

We now know, and it’s a scary situation for Lundqvist who was hit in the neck with a Brad Malone wrist shot Saturday Jan. 31. The goaltender they call ‘The King’ suffered what he called a “sprained blood vessel” on the play and if the injury was not caught in time, “If I kept playing I would have run a big risk of having a stroke.”

That deserved a double-take, in the most horrifying way possible.

Lundqvist said this in a Sunday news conference before New York’s game against the Dallas Stars. It is below:

As far as Lundqvist’s recovery timeframe, the Rangers said he would be out at least three weeks in a release. But listening to Lundqvist, that sounds like a very optimistic judgment. He’s up for another evaluation in three weeks. And until he’s cleared – it’s just going to be light cardio for him as far as workouts go.

“I’m trying to accept I’m going to be out for a while,” he said.

Lundqvist said he was cleared on an initial scan, but after another, the severity of the injury was determined.

When pushed on why he played in a game after the problem if it was so serious, he said that he didn’t feel an issue until after Monday’s contest against Florida when he started to experience headaches.

He claims the injury won’t be a problem once it heals, but again the timetable for this is kind of murky at the moment. Which means Cam Talbot … you’re the guy in net for the Rangers for now. And a once promising year for the Rangers looks lost.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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