Henrik Lundqvist Can Make History Against the Nashville Predators

In Thursday's game against the Nashville Predators, Henrik Lundqvist, goaltender for the New York Rangers, could make NHL history as the first goaltender to win 30 games in each of his first four NHL seasons.

Lundqvist has 29 wins this season, despite playing for a team called everything from underachievers to comatose. He kept the Rangers in the game during a serious mid-season slump in which they stopped scoring goals. 

Lundqvist will be only the second Rangers goaltender to win 30 games in any four consecutive seasons. Hall of Famer Ed Giacomin did it between 1966 and 1970.

"King Henrik" has been nominated for the Vezina Trophy in each of his three seasons in the NHL, finishing third all three times. His play in his rookie season inspired the New York media and Rangers fans to give him the nickname "King Henrik."

During the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, he led the Swedish hockey team to their second Olympic Gold Medal. Lundqvist led Team Sweden to their first-ever medal in Inline hockey, when they won Gold at the 2002 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championships.

Before joining the Rangers, Lundqvist played in the Swedish Elitserien, where he won the Honken Trophy as the best goaltender three years in a row. He also won two of the most prestigious awards in Swedish ice hockey, the Golden Puck, and the Golden Helmet.

The current NHL record of three straight seasons with 30 wins to start a career is shared by Lundqvist and Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers, during the mid-1980s.

Lundqvist has won 30, 37, 37, and 29 games in four seasons. That gives him 133 victories in 251 games, and makes him the sixth-winningest goaltender in Rangers history.

Lundqvist is behind Mike Richter, Giacomin, Lorne “Gump” Worsley, John Vanbiesbrouck, and Dave Kerr, but he has many years to catch up to them.

With 30 wins this season, Lundqvist will achieve something that eluded Hextall and the other great goalies—including Ed Balfour, Dominik Hasek, Glenn Hall, Grant Fuhr, Patrick Roy, and Martin Brodeur.

He can be compared to Hall-of-Famers Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk, Ken Dryden, and Tony Esposito.