We were talking a couple of weeks ago, the King and I, about one of the Rangers’ great games of this mid-decade, except Henrik Lundqvist really didn’t remember it. That was not unusual, though perhaps unique among athletes, who often can recite chapter and verse of every home run they hit, every strikeout they induced, every touchdown they threw, every sack they recorded, every 3 they made from downtown … every save and every shutout.
But not Lundqvist, who burst out laughing when told that he had to have the worst memory in all of pro sports.
“It’s true,” he said. “I really don’t remember anything.”
He paused.
“But I remember the feelings,” he said.
And smiled.
When the decade began, Lundqvist was in goal for the Rangers. As the decade ends, Lundqvist is in goal for the Rangers. He shares it now, but the crease has been his since the 2005-06 season, and he is not in any hurry to yield it. In a world where we are all day-to-day, Lundqvist has been here for a pro sports lifetime.
And New York has been the beneficiary.
So rarely has one player been the face of a franchise for so long. So rarely has one player performed with such grace under pressure and represented his franchise and adopted city with such style. The birth certificate may have been issued in Sweden on March 2, 1982, but New York has become home to him, his wife, Therese, and their two daughters, 7-year-old Charlise and 4-year-old Juli.
“I love it here. We all do,” Lundqvist said. “I could definitely see the girls growing up in the city. We have a lot of friends back home, and a lot could change between now and when I retire, but we could live here.
“Absolutely.”
That is the future. Lundqvist lives in the present. But this is about the past. It is about the decade that will end when the ball drops at midnight. And Henrik Lundqvist, who carried the Rangers to prominence has been voted the second greatest athlete of the decade by The Post sports staff.
“That’s amazing,” said the goaltender, who nodded when told he’d been selected as runner-up to Jacob deGrom. “But a decade … thinking about a decade makes it seem so long. There are times when it seems like it just flies by … and it does.
“Certain memories seem so close, like they were yesterday, and others seem like a lifetime ago. It’s how you process it.”
Six other athletes spent the decade with the same New York team: Lundqvist’s teammate, Marc Staal; the Islanders’ Josh Bailey; the Yankees’ CC Sabathia and Brett Gardner; and the Giants’ Zak deOssie and Eli Manning, who finished one spot behind Lundqvist in The Post’s poll for athlete of the decade.
“I can’t say I know Eli, but I’ve met him, and I know about his career,” Lundqvist said. “I just have so much respect for him.”
Love washed over Manning when he made that final start a couple of weeks ago, but the two-time Super Bowl MVP has seen life from both sides now. Lundqvist, too. He is competing — his hallmark has always been his insane level of competition — to hold onto the No. 1 job in nets that he has held since about his second week as a Ranger. He is playing for a team that is in a very different place than the ones that made the playoffs from 2011 through 2017, went to the conference finals three times in four years from 2012 through 2015, and went on a run to the Cup final in 2014 before losing in a five-game series that featured five overtime periods in three defeats in Los Angeles.
“I always tried to appreciate the journey, and I always tried to enjoy the good with the bad,” said the fifth-winningest goaltender in NHL history. “After those great years, these last few have been different and very challenging in different ways.
“But I appreciate all of it. We’re not in the same place as we were before, when we were a top team every year. We’re trying to get back to that place. That’s the challenge now.”
He is 37 with one year remaining on his contract. The time, he said, is not now to think about the future. Instead there are saves to be made, games to be won and a playoff spot to be earned.
“I don’t think much about the past, and when I do, it’s more about the feelings I had and the experiences I shared with my teammates,” the King said. “But going to those three conference finals … and winning that Game 6 [1-0] against Montreal at home to go to the final, that was exciting.
“That was special.”
Memories.
Turns out that Lundqvist does has a few.
For more on the Rangers, listen to the latest episode of the “Up In The Blue Seats” podcast: