The goalie legend has turned 43 years old and it has been five years since he was forced to end his hockey career due to heart failure.
Home is still in Manhattan, New York – but he also talks about the house on the West Coast in the same terms.
The family, including his wife Therese and daughters Charlise and Juli, also spend their summers there.
It's not so dramatic when you go home in August either, because it's only a few months before you're back. In the past, it was nine, ten months until you got back and you said goodbye to friends and family, he says.
“A little puzzle”
There he is now preparing for the Olympics in Milan in February, where he will be an expert commentator for both SVT and TV4 during the star-studded hockey tournament where NHL professionals are back in the Olympic context for the first time since 2014.
Working for competing channels is an odd solution, but he thinks it feels natural.
"I will still be there in Milan, so it will of course be extra fun to be able to follow all of Sweden's matches with both channels," he says during a media day ahead of the Olympics.
No risk of confusion about what you have said in different channels?
It's a bit of a back and forth puzzle. But regardless of whether it's one, two or five channels, you know what you think and how the team has played. It doesn't change anything. Then there are slightly different constellations of who you talk to, but your opinions are the same, says Lundqvist, who played in three Olympics and was one of the gold heroes in 2006 in Turin.
“Every day unique”
This will be the second time Henrik Lundqvist has worked for Swedish television. In the 2022 Olympics, he was an expert commentator alongside Peter Forsberg on HBO Max (then Discovery), but the pandemic meant that the channel decided that the commentators would remain on home soil.
It will be fun to be there, he says.
In the US, he also works as an expert on dual channels, local MSG Networks, which broadcasts New York Rangers matches and nationwide TNT, where he recently extended his contract by three years.
In addition to his television work, he is an ambassador for Madison Square Garden, a speaker, and an investor.
Every day is a little unique in itself, says Lundqvist, who will remain with his family in New York for the time being.
"We are very happy with the way life is now," he says.
Ice hockey in the Olympics is broadcast on three Swedish channels. SVT and TV4 share the matches while HBO Max shows all matches via its streaming service.
SVT
Program hosts/commentators: Dusan Umisevic, Marie Lehmann, Chris Härenstam.
Experts: Henrik Lundqvist, Kim Martin, Maria Rooth, Jonas Andersson and Håkan Loob.
TV4
Program hosts/commentators: Lena Sundqvist, Björn Oldeen, Lasse Granqvist, Peter Backe, Adam Johansson.
Experts: Henrik Lundqvist, Staffan Kronwall, Sanny Lindström, Adam Johansson.
HBO Max
Hosts: Tommy Åström, Camilla Nordlund.
Experts: Mats Sundin, Håkan Södergren.
More names will be added.
