Hank Lundqvist the Swedish Hockey God

From hank lundqvist

I can't believe we won last night. I'm really happy Hank got a shut out though. He deserves a lot more of those too.

Tonight the Rangers take on the Panthers and I think Hank will be starting again, though as of Thursday Auld was to start tonight. From what I read after the Lightning game, I think it is Hank. But we'll find out.

The thing that continually surprises me about Hank, is how much Sweden follows his every move. They send people over to interview him for their magazines and TV stations, the have articles and photos for every game he plays in the US, etc. Even though he lives 10 months out of the year over here, they don't care.

From henrik lundqvist

This is hard to wrap my mind around because if the US has a hockey player playing pro in another country, I don't know about it. You'd think maybe the guy's hometown might have a mention in their paper about his games, but Hank has got an entire country following him here in the US!

I know ice hockey is much bigger in Sweden than here, as evidenced by the 30,000 people out to welcome home the Frolunda Indians winning the country championship back in 2005 with Hank. That would be like a World Series win here. Actually, do our World Series parades draw that many people? Gothenburg, home of the Frolunda Indians, only has 510,000 people in the urban area. New York has 19.1 million. So for 30,000 out of 510,000 to come out for the Frolunda Indians championship win that would be like 1.1 million showing up for a World Series parade in New York.

From henrik lundqvist

Anyway, Hank is huge in Sweden even though he's only there 2 months out of the year. The day after a Rangers game you can find several Swedish online newspapers with stories and photos about him and the game. Plus there's always audio interviews after the game by Swedish TV stations. That is insane. I cannot think of any overseas US athlete with that kind of recognition here.

I wonder if the fact that he has the Rangers team and all the fans to please but also his home country and fans to support causes too much pressure for him? Is it too much to shoulder? Hank said in an interview last night that when they focus on the one game and play a simple game, they do great. Perhaps that's how Hank gets through it, he just focuses on the one game, his job and that's it.

From henrik lundqvist