As it has been in each of the last three Olympics, there will be a Lundqvist on the ice in Pyeongchang beginning next week. He will don the yellow and blue sweater, trying to lift the Swedish men’s hockey team back to the podium again.
“Just the wrong number,” Henrik Lundqvist said with a wry smile Wednesday at the Rangers’ practice facility.
Lundqvist’s focus over the next few weeks will be squarely on the Rangers and their playoff hopes, beginning Thursday against the Maple Leafs at the Garden. His twin brother Joel, meanwhile, will be representing his country at the Olympics.
“At least one Lundqvist will be going, so that’s nice,” Henrik said.
But it doesn’t completely soften the blow that he can’t be there, too. Lundqvist has had time to process he won’t be making a fourth trip to the Olympics after the NHL announced in April it would not allow its players to participate in the tournament.
Still, with the games approaching, the issue is hitting home again.
“This is something that’s been going over in [my] head for a long time now, ever since they told us we’re not going,” Lundqvist said. “I’ve been three times and every time you go, it’s an experience for life. I remember all three destinations I’ve been to and what it meant and the whole experience. It feels like they’ve taken that away from you, which is not a good feeling.”
In 27 games across three Olympics, Lundqvist owns a .926 save percentage with four shutouts.
He led Sweden to a gold medal in his Olympic debut in 2006 in Turin, when he recorded a .907 save percentage. In the 2010 games in Vancouver, he stopped 51 of the 55 shots he faced and then was at the top of his game again in Sochi in 2014, carrying Sweden to the gold-medal game before falling to Canada and settling for silver.
At 35 years old, there’s no guarantee that Lundqvist will get a return trip to the Olympics in 2022 if the NHL reverses its stance, and looking back, he had no idea in 2014 it might have been his last chance.
“You don’t take it for granted, but obviously you hope you’re going to get another shot at it, for sure,” he said.
Lundqvist said he will try to catch some of his brother’s games amid the Rangers’ busy schedule. Joel, a center and captain for Frolunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League, will be making his Olympic debut.
Ryan McDonagh said he plans on watching as well, even as the Rangers captain expressed his disappointment in not being able to suit up for the United States as he did in Sochi.
“If I was able to play on the team or not, personally you get that opportunity taken away to represent your country again,” McDonagh said. “You don’t get that. And for the younger up-and-coming players that dreamed about playing in the Olympics, it’s not available to them right now, which is pretty sad to think about.”
McDonagh still has some ties to the games. His roommate at the University of Wisconsin, Cody Goloubef, is a defenseman on the Canadian team.
“It’s obviously a great competition, regardless of whether we’re playing or not,” McDonagh said.
There just won’t be the usual names like Lundqvist, McDonagh, Mats Zuccarello (Norway), Rick Nash (Canada), Kevin Shattenkirk (USA), Michael Grabner (Austria) and Ondrej Pavelec (Czech Republic) leaving the Blueshirts to go chase a medal.
“There’s still a lot of good players,” Lundqvist said. “We’ll see how it feels to not be there.”