Henrik Lundqvist is Getting Smarter

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Here is some more of what Henrik had to say on break-up day courtesy of Rangers Report:


“This year is the first time I’ve felt, you’re not going to have that many opportnities. I’m getting older. I’m still 29, but you also realize, to get a great team together—you need some bounces too, to get there—that’s what I’m talking about, when the opportunity’s there you need to grab it. As you get older you realize you really need to grab it because you don’t know when it’s coming next time. But, hopefully I have another 1o years. I don’t know. I don’t know how long I’ll play. But we have a good group here. Yes, we need to improve, but it’s a start and we’ll see what happens over the summer. A lot of contracts are up. We’ll see how the team’s going to look next year.”

I asked him if the prime of a career of a goalie starts a little later, or lasts a little longer, than a skater’s prime.

“I don’t know. We’ll see if I get better or worse. No, I think if you look at other goalies, yeah, a lot of guys, they improve as they get older because you learn the game better, you learn how you work as a person, because such a big part is the mental part. And when you realize that—not realize, but you get smarter, how you approach games, how you approach the pressure, just being able to mentally be in a good place. I don’t think you get better technically as you get older. I don’t think you get faster. I don’t think I’m faster now compared to when I was 22. But mentally, I think I’ve grown, so I think that’s the biggest part.”

I assured him that I had covered a few goalies who got dumber as they got older.

He cracked up. “I get smarter. I don’t know about your goalie buddies.”

On getting married:

“Getting older. I’m growing up, I guess. It’s time.”

Said he would take a few days to decide on World Championships, though there were reports last night that he wouldn’t play.

Then the same guy started asking him restaurant questions. Unlike Avery, and typically like Lundqvist, he gave some straight answers, even though he didn’t look comfortable talking about his new side business.