OTTAWA — A playoff series between the Rangers and Senators begins with Game 1 of their second-round matchup Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre. It also begins a battle for the heart of Sweden.
In one corner is Henrik Lundqvist and his Rangers, the top NHL team in Lundqvist’s native land — largely because of his success, his popularity and the heightened profile of playing in New York. In the other corner is Erik Karlsson and his Senators, the superlative defenseman having the best season of his career for Ottawa, a team that came in as a slight underdog in popularity, as well as by the Las Vegas oddsmakers.
The main Swedish reporter covering the NHL in New York is Per Bjurman, who writes for the publication Aftonbladet. His guess was the country was “60-40” in favor of the Rangers as the series started, and that’s mostly because of Lundqvist. There is only one other athlete in the country who comes close to comparing in popularity: international soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, currently with Manchester United.
“I think Henrik, after Ibrahimovic, he’s probably our No. 1 athlete,” said Viktor Stalberg, a fellow Swede, on Thursday morning.
“He does a lot for the game as far as getting people to watch and follow it,” said Stalberg, who played one season with the Rangers in 2015-16 before signing a free-agent deal with the Hurricanes this past summer then being traded to the Senators just before the deadline. “He’s done a great job of that, being an ambassador for the NHL. In general, I think a lot of Swedes follow the Rangers because they travel [to New York] a lot and people get a chance to go there and watch them play. I know for me, going back in the summer, it’s a lot more people know who you are after you play a year for the Rangers, that’s for sure.”
Lundqvist does a lot of interviews with Swedish reporters, often calling Bjurman on the phone after games or on off-days. It’s something he’s used to, and he does his best not to let it distract him. Yet, as Bjurman will attest, on each night the Rangers are eliminated from the playoffs, asking Lundqvist if he then will go play for Sweden in the World Championships can get the sternest of looks and almost no verbal response.
The 35-year-old Lundqvist was nothing but focused in the first round, when he raised his level to better his counterpart, Vezina Trophy finalist Carey Price, as the Blueshirts beat the Atlantic Division-winning Canadiens in six games. The challenge of the defensively tight Senators is starkly different, but Lundqvist was doing all he could to be up for the task.
“I think being smart in this series is going to be key,” Lundqvist said after Wednesday’s practice in New York. “Most importantly, focus on our game. I think we got stronger and stronger as the [Montreal] series went on, and it’s something we have to continue to build on the next one.”
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Karlsson continued his staggeringly good play in the Senators’ first-round defeat of the Bruins. Despite dealing with two hairline fractures in his left heel, Karlsson logged 41:51 of ice time in a double-overtime Game 5 loss, seemingly never coming off for a breath. He knows the Rangers will be gunning for him, likely chipping the puck in from the neutral zone — where the Senators so infuriatingly trap — and trying to hit him hard and eventually wear him down.
“Just like anybody else, if they want to put more focus on me, I think that’s going to be better,” Karlsson said Thursday morning. “We have a good team here, and that opens up a lot more space for anybody else to do things. That should be good.”
Karlsson, 26, is engaged to a woman from Ottawa and hardly spends any time in Sweden. Lundqvist returns with his Swedish wife for close to two months every summer, reconnecting with his homeland.
They are two of the NHL’s biggest stars, and that is the focus here. Back home, it’s a battle for Swedish supremacy.