Henrik Lundqvist Eyes Ring For Immaculate Collection

By Bruce Arthur 

LOS ANGELES—Start with his hair. Look at it. It’s not a hairstyle; it’s a goddamn symphony, every strand in concert with the others, rising and falling. Henrik Lundqvist doesn’t have to do that with his hair, right? There’s got to be an easier way, a less perfect way, but he refuses to take it.
As the 2014 Stanley Cup final opens, Lundqvist is trying to crack the last hard task. His New York Rangers are decided underdogs to the Los Angeles Kings, who have superior forwards, a superior defensive corps, a team that applies pressure until you crack, and Stanley Cup rings. The biggest reason to believe in the Rangers is Henrik Lundqvist is in goal. He will have to be great, but that’s always been what he’s aiming for, anyway.
“There’s a reason why he’s the king,” says Martin Biron, now with TSN and the NHL Network, who backed up Lundqvist for parts of four seasons in New York. “He’s good-looking, he’s got it all, he’s the best goalie, he plays the guitar, gets on Jimmy Fallon show, all that, and there’s a reason: Because he prepares and works so hard for it. If he didn’t put all the time and effort into being his absolute best at every moment, he would just be very good. He wouldn’t be great.”
Lundqvist was a shy child growing up in the tiny town of Åre, a little over 350 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle. His twin brother Joel once had to hold up his brother’s hand to volunteer to play goaltender; as the New York Post’s Larry Brooks wrote the other day, the only reason Lundqvist was picked in the seventh round by the Rangers was because one European scout wouldn’t shut up about him.
When Lundqvist got to New York, he had already played four seasons with Frolunda in the Swedish Elite League. But it was hard. The old Rangers crowds — before the $1-billion renovation that ushered in Madison Square Garden’s more gilded age — were a volatile chorus. As Lundqvist told Sports Illustrated’s Brian Cazeneuve in 2012, “I really wanted their approval. You shouldn’t worry if people like you, but I really did. I still do.”
He has that now, but he wants more. He won the gold medal for Sweden in the 2006 Olympics, and the affection rained down on him when he went home to play an exhibition game against Frolunda in 2011; they chanted his name and sang him songs and he was touched, and you could see it.
In the NHL, he got to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final two years ago and lost to New Jersey and Martin Brodeur, and it has taken him a long time to get over that. He has imagined the New York crowds if they win. There isn’t much Henrik Lundqvist doesn’t have, and this is on the list.
“I think now is not different from earlier years,” said Lundqvist, one day before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final. “This is something I wanted for a long time, and it doesn’t change — you always have this feeling going into the season, you always have this feeling going into the playoffs. And of course you get more and more excited as you get closer. But you try to keep that same mindset and same focus that you had all along.
“But already my first couple days (after the Eastern Conference final) at the training centre, seeing that photo from (the Rangers championship season of 1994) — I’ve been walking past that same photo for nine years. And I’ve seen myself being there. And I definitely want to go there.”
He gets a little dreamlike when he says this; he speaks a little softer, even in the middle of this ring of cameras and microphones and lights. And then he recovers his famous Swedish equilibrium.
“Yeah, it’s been a dream for a long time, and to be in this position is extremely exciting.”
Great goalies don’t always win the Cup. Since the lockout of 2004-05, Lundqvist has the second-highest save percentage of any goaltender with at least 200 starts at .920, fractionally behind Tomas Vokoun. And during that time the Cup-winning goalies have been Cam Ward, J-S Giguère, Chris Osgood, Marc-André Fleury, Antti Niemi, Tim Thomas, Jonathan Quick and Corey Crawford.
All have gotten hot. Few have experienced sustained greatness. On that list, only Thomas ranks with Lundqvist. But they all have rings.
“You could take video of Lundqvist and show it to a bunch of 10-year-olds and say, this is how to play efficient,” says Biron. “This is how your movement, your butterfly, your positioning will be efficient. Everything he does is about being technically perfect. That’s him.
“His clothes have to be technically perfect, well-tailored, fit good. His cars, his life, his vacations, his Twitter. It’s always the best of everything. His casual look is better than 95 per cent of everybody else. That’s who he is. I’ve been to his house, and his dog is this perfectly behaved dog, this Doberman who just goes out and comes in. It’s awesome.
“It’s got to be tough, to always have those highest standards. But he keeps going for it.”
He does, because he can’t do anything else. Lundqvist is this blend of ease and intensity, and he hides the latter well. He has suffered migraines and blurred vision from grinding his teeth, but he tries to make everything look easy, even when it’s hard. Why? Is it because he had a twin brother, and they were both born competitive? Is is because he was shy, and now he never wants to be the kid who is afraid to speak? Is it because he came all this way from a small town on the edge of nowhere?
Whatever it is, he’s so close to this, now. He’s almost there.
“It’s not always about the last game of the season, and winning that; it’s about the entire season, and having fun and seeing what you can accomplish,” says Lundqvist, every hair in place. “But when you break it down, in the end, of course, you want to win. You want to win the Cup. We’re four wins away. I know this will be the toughest step.
“But for me personally, it would mean everything to win.”

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/2014/06/03/stanley_cup_final_henrik_lundqvist_eyes_ring_for_immaculate_collection_arthur.html