How do you get one of the world's best hockey goalies, good for a quarter of a billion (Swedish money), to leave his hometown New York - for a cover shoot at a deserted parking spot in Skene, in southern Sweden? Easy. you give him the keys to an armada of new car scent Lamborghini. and hope no one from the Von Braun Sports Cars - General agent for Lamborghinis in Sweden, who help us with the temporary loan - Listen in detail what Henrik says when he was thirty minutes late arriving at the site of his newly bought Maserati.
- one of those silvery Lamborghini (Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera, editor's note), I have had before. but I slammed it into a railing outside Manhattan. I have pictures, do you want to see?
The photo at lightning speed drop the whole team all they have and gather around Henriks iPhone to talk slippery surfaces, cornering and high insurance premiums.
after some spontaneous »oh my God!«, »You could have died!« and »that you survived!« the call goes over to style and clothes-Henriks second major interest, together with cars and soon the photo team moved to Maseratins trunk.
- I brought some of my own stuff, he says experienced. (there are Henkes third cover photoshoot for King magazine.) and holds up tuxedo jacket from Tiger, leather jacket from Reiss and his coat from Prada and the team begin to talk cuts, fabrics and cashmere.
Henrik describes his style as European, while teammate in the New York Rangers, Scott Gomez recently used a different word: tight.
- He likes to dress up. But sometimes I do not understand how he gets on his pants, they are so tight, he told to Washington Post.
A few weeks later, we meet again - this time far away from the deserted parking lots and the phototeam that stalked us., in Henriks penthouse on Manhattan. The photography was - as it always does with experienced Henke front of the camera - brilliant (no crashes or scratches in the paintwork on a car) and now it's time for me to do my part of the job: the interview.
Dobermann Nova examines me carefully when I sit down at the kitchen table with Henrik opposite, and I begin where we last left off:
How serious was really the car accident with your Lamborghini?
- I was lucky. It was slippery and wet and I was aquaplaning which meant that I lost control of the car and drove straight into the guardrail. But as I said, I could get out directly without a scratch.
And your car?
- It was not feeling as good.
Was there anything left of it?
- You have to ask the insurance company about that ...
You said you would never drive a Lamborghini again, but six months later had a new in the garage.
Driving a Lamborghini is like driving a kart, but with a bit more horsepower. I guess I just like it too much. The maneuvers also very good.
So good that the New York Rangers owner threatened you to personally pick off all the tires the next time you drive past him on his way to training. Is it just speed that is the allure or do you like to fix the cars, too?
- I know honestly nothing about cars except that I like to run them and likes the design around them. But you ask me if I can repair anything on a car then I'm screwed. I've had some mechanical incidents over the years but I trust my surroundings when it comes to fix them. The last time I came to a workshop in New York sat it half a screwdriver in the gearbox as it turned out that a service guy had forgotten. It ended with the gearbox changed for over 200 000. Around $ 30.000.
Lucky for you that you will have earned fourth billion(Swedish money) just in time you passed the 30th.
- 250 million crowns, have I earned of much? Where is the money somewhere?
How does it feel to be so young and already have collected of much money?
- It feels of course great to be able to live a life where you do not need to worry over the economy. I'd be lying if I said penagar not play a major role in our industry. We have such a limited career. After 10-15 yearsWe are over and then we start on something new. So of course it feels good to be able to secure my future.
You wore a Breitling watch during the shoot, how does your watch interest look like?
- I can not say I am a watch man. Especially if I compare myself with others on the team, Gaborik, to example, is a real watch collectors with maybe 10-15 treasures. However, I like to have a nice watch on me, I have quite a few of these but only use two: my Breitling and my Hamilton.
In an interview recently made when you became the first New York-athlete to have your picture on a Gray Line bus, you said you had good luck through your career. How much luck you need to get there, you have reached?
- It is obvious that you need luck. You need to be good at the right times and you have to have the opportunity to show it too. If I think back on my career I have had many good chances, as when I came to Rangers and there was an opening for me. Had it not been it of I might have gone a longer way.
Are you ever afraid that he luck should go and something will happen to you?
- Sometimes. You've encountered players who have had very tragic accident: It is enough sometimes with a light rear-end and a buckle in the back and all of the sudden, you're paralyzed. I am also concerned that any small damages in the end will prevent me from performing fully. But I try not to think about it too often.
Henrik describes how he met guys who have had accidents on the ice that made them currently in a wheelchair. One time they played a junior international against Finland, in which a guy got a shot in the stomach, he remembers how it was blood everywhere and the medical team urgently had to help out on the ice and in front of all audience to make an emergency cut in the neck to get him breathing again.
- These situations make me think. But there it of much just in the ordinary life, which also can lead to life changing damn fast. it is important to be aware of it so you takes advantage of what you have.
In an earlier interview with King magazine, you said that you intend to play throughout your career. What should you do when you retire?
- I can see myself owning some restaurants here in New York. Maybe I have something in Sweden. But you have to nag just wait on that day, it is extremely difficult to know now.
But you is now enter the restaurant industry with Rangers colleague Sean Avery and restaurant veteran Matt Broomswick?
- Yes! We recently opened a restaurant in Tribeca, but it's more like a fun thing. Matt already owns a bar with Sean Avery, popular little Smith and Mills, and a new club that will be a huge win and that will open over earth in the Meatpacking District. Our Tiny's restaurant, is no big deal but more of a neighborhood restaurant with »high-end home cooking« and home cooking, there we can gather some fun people and hang out after games.
You play guitar along with Jay Weinberg, the son to Bruce Springsteen's drummer. Tell us!
- I met Jay in Gothenburg, Ullevi Stadium the the first, but then thought he did not, it is his father Max who is the star. Jay is only 19 years old but just fine, I've seen him play with Bruce twice. So I do not know if I am worthy to play with him, but it is great fun anyway. We will certainly play a bit in winter also, there is a building here the Manhattan as we usually go to, there we rent drums and enhancer. It's very relaxing and fun, I have no higher ambitions than that.
How many guitars do you have now?
- 10-12 pieces. I buy however no monster guitars, I just like to have a bit to play the, all have slightly different feel. But favorite is probably my Fender Telecaster..
It media interest around Henrik as a person has sharply increased over the last few years, from to cover the sports pages, he has now been photographed to story in the magazine as well as Italian and the U.S. Vogue as the New York Post. When I meet him, he has previously uner days already managed to be in a radio interview. He shows me the idea of the U.S. Vogue has just been published, which represents him, the Olsen twins and three models wearing Rangers gear.
- The whole thing with the series of pictures was »Fashion's Night Out«, a night during fashion week then shops are kept open night and arranged a lot of events. In this particular shoot Vogue wanted to have with New York-sections and then choice fell on us.
With all this media coverage, you are still anonymous here in New York?
- pretty in all cases, even though people know me much better now compared to three years ago. But it is still on a very comfortable level, I can relax and eat dinner without feeling watched out. Then it juh course that some fans are a bit more fanatical than others, but it to take
Do you think the media give a fair picture of you?
- I try not to read that much of what is written in Sweden. You try to remember to express themselves in a way that you stand for and who says who you are, it is course that people believe what they read. photojournalist has an incredible power, people forget about it sometimes, how much they can tilt and pick out sentences from their sammanang and cut them in others. When we was young we read the headlines and thought, »My God is that really true?« Now when you yourself appear in the media, and reading about others deleted it forever from the need to remove at least fifty percent. You know how it works, it will be added and removed in order to get such a good story as possible. It've been such writings at home on Princess Madeleine and me. The princess and I have met with people on a handful of Jump, including the Childhood Foundation, we are familiar, nothing else. Rumors and typos to be well to live to, it's sad when it affects your family that you love. But as I said, when you're over here, you're not so aware of what was happening back home. Then you will come home and realize how much less is Sweden, and that people therefore spend a lot more notice to what is written.
For us mortals, Tell me something you're really bad on?
- I am terribly woozy and bad on timekeeping. I could be more structured, write things down more often so that I had a bit more track on them. Like the other day when the Rangers PR guy ten minutes before I pull the workout gives a long list of what I must do, to orders not to forget the list. I shower, get dressed , go from there - and of course I forgot the list. I'm very distracted sometimes.
What would your girlfriend Theresa answer on the same question?
- She would certainly add that I may be poor at listening. But that's mostly because I have bad simultaneous ability, I'm terrible on doing two things at once.
Last summer you and your brother Joel was involved in a seadrama in Gothenburg. What happened?
- We was on the way and would have lunch when we saw something bobbing in the water. It rained, it would have been a storm and still blew from all directions, I first thought it was a surfer who was resting. But it was two canoes, one was a bit up and down, strapped in the canoe. He was very tired and hypothermia and shouted that he could not manage more. But it first thing he said, wide awake when I grabbed his hand to pull him up was still: »But I recognize you! «
There's this moment no other Swedes in the the Rangers. Who in the team hang out with you privately, and which Swedes do you hang out with in the New York?
- When we are traveling, we often go out on dinner with all or almost all the team. Last year I hung a lot with Aaron Voros, but now he has been threaded to Anaheim. In short, I like meeting people from completely different industries with totally different lives. It's what's fun with New York, this is it that incredibly mixed. it would have been almost impossible to live the life you have in the New York if you play somewhere else, then I think on the social and the possibilities here. It is fortunate.
The luck again then. Now you have just renovated your penthouse, which one of you and Therese is having as good taste?
- Much has been made Therese, she were spending an awful lot of time on this last year, the took nine months just to all drawings and permits. When we bought the apartment two years ago, plans on renovation was lower, because we believed that any renovation would be completed within four months. But both plans and budget for the portion was five times before we started.
Next project?
- Getting to the playoffs and try to win the Stanley Cup. Of course.
You have four years left of your six-year contract with Rangers. what does it really mean? Can you still be threads and suddenly have to move out?
- Yes, I can be threaded tomorrow. You are never one hundred percent certainty, even if you sometimes can go in the certain contracts there they can not move you against your will. But such is not my and they do not like to write them either. So the is pressure from season to season - you have to do well all the time.
But how it plans for then future?
- You can’t, you learn to live in the the present. I feel a bit safer than some others do sometimes, some who will often come to tend to fall into a slot there they just continue to be threaded. They live with uncertainty all the time. We were on a road trip in the Los Angeles once then a player was sold during the trip itself. He simply had to jump off the bus and switch to another that took him to his new club. The family sat at home and found out that he would not come home. So the was just for the wife to start packing the apartment.
Rangers fans are usually among the most demanding in the NHL. Last year, you didn’t reach the playoffs. What are the requirements this year?
- The goal is to get to the playoffs and do well there. We are not a top team, but we will fight to get there. Personally I always try to have a better year than the year before. I took it pretty hard that we did not get to playoffs last year. It was not because we were too bad, we was just that uneven, we lost too many games that we should have won. Many times when I let in goals, it is not because I can not take them, but because I am tired in the my head, you takes the wrong decision. You have to have a positve feeling in the the body, when I go out with a good feeling that is usually fine, which is easier said than done.
- But sometimes you get that down by your own and other people's expectations, then it is trying to turn it off and remind yourself about to relax and have fun.
A huge thank you goes out to reader Josefine for translating the interview for us!
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