Brooks' tribute is really touching and gets at much of what I most admired about Henrik. As much as we the fans wanted to see better players in front of him, Henrik never spoke about his team and his teammates with anything less than the utmost respect. He always shouldered the blame for a loss because more often than not the margin was always razor thin and a single mistake iced it against us. But that was his margin for a decade and a half, a margin he turned into 10 straight seasons in the top 6 Vezina voting, 12 straight 30 win seasons (prorating the 2012 lockout season, and a stand alone record in NHL history), 11 postseason appearances (12 if you want to count this year), 3 conference finals, and a Finals appearance wherein 3 OT games (2 in double OT) made the difference.
I never played goal, and my Rangers fandom was my inheritance. I was born five months after the 94' championship, but some of my earliest memories are of watching the 97' team in their run to the Conference Finals. So Henrik didn't make me love hockey. But what he did do was introduce me to ways of seeing the game which I never could have otherwise. It was clear almost from minute one that he was a special player--maybe unlike any I had ever seen and perhaps will ever see in a Rangers' uniform. Here was a player who defined a franchise, who as a single player brought a team to relevance and beyond, who challenged every assumption ever made about his position and re-defined what an NHL goaltender could be and was capable of.
As analysis of the sport leans more and more heavily on new and developing statistics, one thing that has caught my attention is the now standard take that 'goaltending is voodoo.' People have mentioned here already, but it's worth repeating and insisting upon how, across Henrik Lundqvist's career, no catchphrase could be farther from the truth. It always bothered me growing up watching Henrik when people would laugh at the suggestion that he was in the same tier of player as Ovechkin and Crosby--generational. But the fact is, he absolutely was. Just as, from day one you could go into any season, no matter the roster surrounding them, no matter the preseason predictions in the standings, you could say, OV hits 50, Crosby hits 100, and Lundqvist gets his 30 (and his .920). No other player at his position was so consistent. No other goalie achieved so much with so little breathing room. And just like his never winning a championship or his single Vezina, his legacy will always be undercut by those who never watched him game-in and game-out as we did.
Henrik is the greatest athlete I have had the privilege of watching from beginning to end, and I'm heartbroken--not because of what he 'failed' to do, not because he was bought out or how his career has ended with us, but because of the simple fact that it's over.
A seventh round pick. A goalie. But absolutely not a player that came up short, not in any way in my mind. Henrik Lundqvist spent his career defining success: at his position, as a Ranger, as an ambassador, as a part of the New York Metro area community, as a leader...
I wish I could shake people to see what this man was, but the truth is, you had to watch. That was the gift we all we blessed with as Rangers' fans for fifteen years. We got to watch. Every game we had a chance to win. Every sure goal stopped. Every margin realized. And now, we won't see another.
A good goaltender gives his team a chance. Lundqvist gave us so much more than that. Cheers to you on an unbelievable career. To my mind the greatest Ranger of all-time and among the pantheon of the defining players of his generation, of his position, and of New York City pro sports.