Henrik Lundqvist - the legendary "king" of Swedish hockey

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Henrik Lundqvist is the goalkeeper of the Swedish ice hockey team. At the club level, he defends the colors of the New York Rangers NHL team. Henrik was born on March 2, 1982 in Sweden. King Henrik has been playing big hockey since 2000, when he was drafted by the Rangers. The highest paid go altender in the NHL is Henrik Lundqvist. In 2013, he signed a $50 million deal ending in 2020.

Career start

The New York Rangers had a seventh round pick in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The Big Apple club drafted Henrik with a pick of 205. His twin brother Yoel was drafted by Texas Dallas much earlier, with an overall pick of 68.

After the draft, Henrik continued to play in the Swedish hockey league, and in 2004, according to experts, he became the sixth most promising European hockey player. A year later, the goalkeeper was named MVP of the Swedish championship, setting five league records.

The debut in the National Hockey League took place in late autumn 2005. got injuredRangers main goalkeeper Kevin Wicks, and Henrik Lundqvist took his place in goal.

National Hockey League

Since his debut for the New York Rangers, Lundqvist has not changed a single club. Moreover, Henrik immediately became the main goalkeeper of the team, replacing the injured Wicks in the goal frame. In his first season in the NHL, Hank played 53 games in goal for the Rangers. The team was able to win in 30 fights, which helped it reach the field-offs of the Stanley Cup. In the regular season, Henrik Lundqvist played two games without conceding a single goal. In the playoffs, he conceded in every match.

In the next three seasons, the results of the team improved. Henrik's batting percentage averaged 91.5%. But the team could not even reach the finals of the Eastern Conference. New York were stopped twice in the quarter-finals and once in the ½ tournament.

Failures in the Stanley Cup playoffs

Only once did Henrik Lundqvist's team fail to qualify for the playoffs following the results of the regular season. It happened in the 2009-2010 season. Even 35 winning matches did not allow the club to get into the TOP-8 of the Eastern Conference.

Despite the fact that over the past 13 years, the New York Rangers have only once missed the playoffs, this period can not be called successful. Every time the team took part in the knockout games, they could not stay there.

In 2012 and 2013, Henrik Lundqvist brought the team todecisive games in the conference, but the battle for the NHL Finals both times ended in failure. Only the third time the Rangers were able to win the Eastern Conference, but they failed to get the cup in the final.

Reliable game "King Henrik" in the goal frame allowed his club to win their division twice. Both times the team managed to win more than 50 wins in 82 NHL regular season games. This happened for the first time in the 2011-2012 season. Henrik Lundqvist played 62 games and had a 93 batting percentage, the highest percentage of his entire NHL career. New York won the division for the second time in 2015 with 53 wins.

National team

During his career with the Swedish national team, Lundqvist was able to win two Olympic medals. The first one was gold. In the final of the Turin Olympics, the Swedes defeated the Finnish team with a score of 3-2. The second Olympic medal was earned in 2014 at the Olympic Games in Sochi. Then Lundqvist's team lost in the final to Team Canada. Henrik made the 2014 Olympic All-Star Team despite a crushing defeat in the tournament finals.

In 2003 and 2004, the Swedish team was one step away from winning the gold medals of the World Championships. In 2004, Henrik got into the symbolic team at the World Cup in the Czech Republic. He was able to win his first and only world gold at the 2017 World Cup. In the final match, Lundqvist won a shootout against his opponent from Team Canada.