The King with the Three Crowns

Henrik Lundqvist has one of the best fitting nicknames in hockey. Even if many Swedes often get called “King”, in Lundqvist’s case there’s also the nice connection with “King Henry”, and he certainly earned the royal moniker with his hockey heroics that charmed the Madison Square Garden crowd.

 

But his royal presence goes beyond hockey. Henrik Lundqvist is one of those people who demand attention, and who makes people’s heads turn when he enters the room, and the Stockholm conference center where he, and three other former players were inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in May, was no exception.

 

The audience leaned in as Lundqvist, in his immaculate suit underneath a yellow Tre Kronor sweater, he took the stage, and the audience leaned in to listen as Lundqvist told a story of his visiting grandparents in Stockholm and seeing the Avicii Arena from a backseat of a car.

 

“I decided that I wanted to play there,” he said. Most of all, he wanted to play there and wear the Team Sweden sweater, its three crowns on his chest – another great reason to call him the King.

 

Lundqvist was nominated for the NHL best goaltender award Vezina Trophy five times, winning it in 2012, when he was also up for the Hart Trophy as the NHL MVP. He also led his New York Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014.

 

But it was his play on the national team and wearing those three crowns that made Lundqvist so beloved in his native Sweden. Lundqvist played in three Olympic tournaments, and five Ice Hockey World Championships, winning one Olympic gold and one silver, and one world championship gold and two silver medals. His record in the Olympics is an impressive 12-0-3.

 

As he backstopped Sweden to gold medals, he paved the way to the pantheon of Swedish hockey, among other legends of the game, such as Sven Tumba, Håkan Loob, Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, and Nicklas Lidström.

 

“Tre Kronor has always meant a lot to me. Those were the players I looked up to as a kid, that’s why you pick up hockey and to wear the jersey, this jersey, is a special feeling,” Lundqvist said and touched the yellow sweater he was wearing at the IIHF Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

 

“I’ve had some of my most memorable moments wearing it. Wins, of course,” he added.

 

In 2006, he was teammates with Sundin, Forsberg, and Lidström when Tre Kronor won the Olympic gold in Turin and he made a memorable…