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NEW YORK. After a couple of surreal months in corona limbo, Henrik Lundqvist has just started training on ice at home in Gothenburg again - and has experienced what it feels like to be preseasonably rusty at a time of year when the life of an NHL star usually approaches its frustrating climax.
But no, that does not mean that the Swedish goalkeeper icon knows more about the future than he did last time someone asked.
- It's uncertain on so many planes at the moment, so I'm just trying to live in the present. But when this season is finally over, no matter what happens, I'll sit down and discuss with the Rangers and hear what the club has plans for. Then we can see, says Henke in an exclusive interview with Sportbladet. It has been quite exactly two months since the corona pandemic hit in earnest in North America and forced the NHL to the cross - just as the exhilarating basic series spurt had begun.
Since then, the halls where the world's best hockey players perform have been in the dark, bombarded and abandoned, and the stars themselves have spread throughout the world.
Henrik Lundqvist, for example, left New York and flew home to Sweden as early as mid-March.
- I don't remember the exact dates now, but we booked air tickets for a Friday and the Wednesday before New York was closed down completely. It was incredibly strange. A city where there is always so much life and movement was suddenly completely deserted. You got a strong sense of reality, he says on the phone from his home in Gothenburg.
- It was just as we flew home and came to Kastrup and heard uninterrupted loudspeaker messages about keeping distance and stuff. Everything felt weird.
"Very uncomfortable"
However, the 38-year-old goalkeeper did not experience how his American hometown became the epicenter of the entire world crisis and for a few weeks in early April, when nothing but the ambulance sirens heard on Manhattan nights, seemed to be on the path to outright humanitarian disaster. But of course he followed the trend in the distance - with a lump of discomfort in his stomach.
- Yes, of course. It has been very unsettling to see and hear what has happened. Thankfully, all my friends are doing well, and most have also left town and are on Long Island and other places, but many know people who have been hit hard, he continues.
- You wonder about the consequences in the longer term, too. This crisis strikes in so many ways, it's hard to imagine what it will be like in New York when this is over.
Yes, among other things, all restaurants, with devastating consequences for most of them, have been forced to close again. Of course, that also applies to Tiny's - the exclusive tavern in the Tribeca district where Henke is a partner.
- It's been a while since I talked to the people there, so I don't know exactly what's going on. Hopefully we have the advantage of being such a small restaurant without too much overhead. For larger places there is the risk that it will be very difficult.
At home in Sweden, life is progressing in a less dramatic way. But it is not normal. When we speak, Henrik has just helped his oldest daughter Charlise with some school assignments - delivered online by the teachers in New York.
- The schools closed fast and that's when we decided to go home. Now it's all about homeschooling via the web. Due to the time difference, there will be some odd times, she will have to work late afternoons and early evenings. But it works well, he thinks.
- Otherwise, everyday life rolls on here anyway. Everything is not exactly as usual, we do not meet as many people as we usually do when we are at home during the summers, but we alternate time between the apartment in Gothenburg and the summer house outside the city and have found some new routines. You have to try to be positive and take advantage of quality time with the family.
At the same time, the Madison Square Garden fan favorite must be ready to return to the United States at any time. The NHL has still not given up hope of completing the interrupted season in any form. The latest bet is that 24 of the 31 teams, including the New York Rangers, will meet in a newly composed playoff format in four different cities on the North American continent, Without an audience.
- I have contact with the club and teammates, we try to keep up to date on what's happening. But right now everything is very uncertain, I know nothing more than anyone else. It's just to wait.
- Playing without an audience would certainly feel very strange. Especially in the playoffs. Then it is the most pressure, sometimes the energy of the fans can almost turn the entire playoff matches. But if we gather again, then I still think we will light up and drive as usual give everything to win.
Thus, like all other hockey players in the corona vacuum, Henke tries to keep fit on his own.
- I was actually on ice for the first time earlier today (read: Friday).
How did it feel? Yes, it felt like during the preseason. You are rusty now. Pretty weird this time of year.
- In general, it is difficult to plan the training under these circumstances. In normal cases you have a clear goal with the preparation, and know how to do to achieve a certain result at a certain time. Now you do not really know what is happening. But just be sure to be ready.
"Let's see what happens"
Another question that is currently unclear is formulated as follows:
What will happen to Henrik Lundqvist in the future?
After fifteen straight seasons, he lost the position the Rangers gave the first-keeper last winter and many thought the club disrespected his faithful servant. Just a few weeks ago, for example, friend and ex-teammate Mats Zuccarello made strong comments on the topic in Norwegian media - and every time we here at Sportbladet conduct live chat with readers about hockey and the NHL everyone wants to know about Swedish hockey history's most successful keeper want to change club, want to move home to Sweden or even plan to leave?
But there are no answers to that kind of questions right now.
Henrik himself:
- It's uncertain on so many planes at the moment, so I'm just trying to live in the present. But when this season is finally over, no matter what happens, I'll sit down and discuss with the Rangers and hear what the club has plans for. Then we see. It also means that West-Swedish hopes for a return to Frölunda - expressed, for example, in a TT interview with the twin brother Joel quite recently - must be sorted into questions that are dealt with sometime later.
- Hehe, I understand that Joel gets many questions about it. I've never closed any doors when it comes to that matter, but I still have contracts in the NHL and the plan is to start with that. Then ... yes, as I said, we'll see what happens.
So is life when a worldwide pandemic is going on - even for hockey stars.
Everything hangs in the air.
https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/hockey/a/0ndOGE/det-ar-ovisst-pa-sa-manga-plan-for-tillfallet
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