NEW YORK -- Henrik Lundqvist is the king of the New York Rangers record book for goalies. He surged this season past Mike Richters mark for career wins (301) and dispatched Ed Giacomin on the shutout list (49). The only thing missing is a Stanley Cup ring. That is the one area in which Richter still has him beat. "The more pressure there is, the better he seems to perform. Thats what you want," first-year Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "I know he wants to win the Cup. ... Were going to need him to be at his best, but this is a team game." King Henrik got off to a good start Thursday night when he and the Rangers beat the Flyers 4-1 in the first-round playoff opener. Philadelphias first shot got past Lundqvist and put the Flyers ahead, but he stopped the other 14 that came his way. One win down, 15 to go to give the Rangers their first Stanley Cup championship in 20 years -- which in Rangers history is not all that long since Richter and the 1994 squad led by Mark Messier ended a 54-year drought. "Everybody wants to be known as a winner," Vigneault said. "Hank is one of the best goaltenders in the league, and his stats are there to back it up." By all accounts, the 32-year-old Lundqvist is a driven hard worker, relentless in preparation and desire to be the best. "His No. 1 quality is how hard he competes and how much he wants to win," Vigneault said. "You can tell every time he steps on the ice -- practices, games -- the focus that he has, the amount of internal pressure he puts on himself to always be at a high level. "The standards that he puts on himself are as high as any player that I have ever coached. That is why he has been in the elite goaltenders for the past 10 years." When he arrived from Sweden at 23, Lundqvist embraced the pressure of playing in New York and thrived on it, reveling in the citys culture. He is a model of consistency and might already have enough credentials to ensure his jersey will be lifted to the Madison Square Garden rafters next to Richters even if he doesnt deliver that championship. "The passion that I have for this game and trying to get better and the emotions you feel when you play is something you live for," Lundqvist said. "Those moments when you win a big game I cant compare to anything else I have in my life when it comes to the adrenaline, the pressure, the excitement. "You have moments throughout games and throughout seasons of where youre like, Wow. This is why I play. You dont feel that every day. You dont feel that always, but you have moments where you realize its all worth it." Lundqvist has 309 career regular-season wins and 50 shutouts. He is also the first goalie to reach at least 30 wins in eight of his first nine NHL seasons. Lundqvist was chosen by the Rangers in the seventh round of the 2000 NHL draft -- pick No. 205 -- when he was just 18. He remained in his native Sweden for the next several years and joined the Rangers for the first time in the 2005-06 season, making his NHL debut against Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils. "Your mindset is just to establish yourself, and fighting for your life almost every day and try to prove yourself because they dont really know what Ive done in Sweden for five years," Lundqvist said. "They dont really care what Ive done. Its about here and its about now. "It probably took me a couple of years before I felt comfortable and I knew that I had my role here." He stood out right away to John Davidson, a former Rangers goalie who backstopped the team to the 1979 Stanley Cup finals and then became a television analyst from 1986-2006. He broadcast games throughout Richters entire career and into the early stages of Lundqvists. "I didnt know a lot about him, but I remember when he came to the Rangers practice facility," said Davidson, now the president of hockey operations for the Columbus Blue Jackets. "I was standing on the glass the first day of camp, and I walked away three or four minutes after and I said, Theres the goalie. "He was polished. His work habits were exceptional. He and Mike, the common denominator there is the ability to handle pressure and the ability to work hard." 19:14ET 18-04-14 Cheap Kevin Durant Shoes . Ortiz hit a pair of two-run homers, including his 400th shot in a Red Sox uniform, and drove in a career high-tying six runs to power Boston past the Houston Astros 10-7 on Saturday night. Kevin Durant Shoes Deals . Like a magic trick, the puck popped out behind Stalock in the San Jose net. While Sharks coach Todd McLellan decried the legality of the tiebreaking goal, the Los Angeles Kings celebrated their latest, greatest escape yet. https://www.kevindurantshoescheap.com/.C. -- The Steve Smith era in Carolina is over. Kevin Durant Shoes Outlet . Harris has played in six games since joining the Argos in 2012, completing 17-of-35 passes for 256 yards and one touchdown. Wholesale Kevin Durant Shoes . According to TSNs Farhan Lalji, Richardson is heading to Toronto for a physical and is expected to sign with the Argonauts.PINEHURST, N.C. -- Bubba Watson has one thing going for him: So far, nobody else has a better chance at winning a second major this year. "Ive already got one," he quipped Tuesday. The two-time Masters champion came to Pinehurst this week for the U.S. Open hoping to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to win the years first two majors. "Any time you have that chance, its been a good year, because that means youve done well early," Watson said. The worlds third-ranked player is trying to join that short list of players to win both the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year. Its only happened six times and before Woods, nobody had done it since Jack Nicklaus in 1972. Watson is certainly hoping this attempt goes better than the last one. Two years ago at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, he missed the cut after shooting an 8-over-par 78 in his opening round. Through the years, the U.S. Open has provided a particularly vexing test for Watson, who has missed the cut in three of his seven Opens. His only top-10 finish came in 2007 when he tied for fifth at Oakmont -- perhaps the toughest of the courses that have staged golfs national championship. "A U.S. Open brings out challenges that were not used to, challenges that we can only take once a year or we would all find new jobs if we had to do it every week," Watson said. And a different set of them awaits this week at the revamped Pinehurst No. 2 course that looks nothing like it did when Payne Stewart (1999) and Michael Campbell (2005) won Opens here. Watson it called "a second-shot golf course" and said it bears no resemblance to the Augusta National course hes twice conquered "except its 18 holes, thats about it.dddddddddddd" The multi-million-dollar restoration to Donald Ross original design, removed the rough and left only two cuts of grass -- fairway and green. Birdies figure to once again be rare at the U.S. Open, where bogeys arent necessarily bad and the winner is often the one who takes the smartest shots and makes the fewest mistakes. Hell find out over the next few days if his daring "Bubba golf" style will work on a course that has only two par-5s. Watson leads all PGA Tour players with an average driving distance of 314 yards -- a distinct advantage at the various courses on the tour. But maybe not at Pinehurst No. 2, where sandy hardpan, wiregrass and weeds make up what used to be the rough. "Its all about the tee shots. Im going to try to lay farther back than normal, because its still iffy hitting in that -- I dont know what they call it, rough, dirt, sand. ... But its going to be iffy. You dont know what kind of lies youre going to get." Get through that and out of the fairways, and those notoriously tricky turtleback greens -- which a smiling Watson repeatedly called "unfriendly" -- await. The "U.S. Open is challenging you at all levels. If you want to be a man and hit driver off that tee, you can," he said. "If you want to lay back and try to play smarter, you can. ... You have the ability to do it, now can you do it at that moment, is what the key is. "So I think the U.S. Open is doing that, its just thats what theyre trying to create," he added. "Theyre trying to create a challenge for everybody, and you can play it aggressively or you can play it smartly." ' ' '