Who’s Hotter than Henrik Zetterberg? Nobody!

By Chris Turner, Zetterbergfan.com, February 22, 2007

No hockey player in the world is hotter than the Detroit Red Wing’s Swedish star forward Henrik Zetterberg. How hot is he?

Henrik Zetterberg is lighting up the NHL with 13 goals and 12 assists in the last 10 games. During that 10 game stretch, Detroit has won 8 games. Zetterberg is the #1 star of the game in seven of those victories.

In last night’s 4-2 victory over the Chicago Black hawks, Henrik had two goals, including the game winner. He was named third star of the game, but only because Pavel Datsyuk scored his milestone 100^th career goal. Clearly Zetterberg is the MVP of the team. But is he a candidate for MVP of the league?

Zata’s season totals to date aren’t overwhelming. With his recent hot streak he has climbed to 9^th in the NHL with 32 goals and 16^th in the league with 66 total points. Perhaps most impressively, he puts up these outstanding offensive numbers while being 5^th in the NHL (3^rd amongst forwards) with a +28 (plus/minus). He is as much defensively responsible, at even strength and killing penalties, as he is flashy and skillful with the puck in the offensive zone. And he is masterful while weaving through opposing defenses and showing up enemy goaltenders.

When Henrik Zetterberg is hot, he is on fire. He leads the league with 8 games with 3 or more points. He is also 1st overall with 10 game winning goals this season. No one has been better since the All-Star break. Henrik was the NHL’s player of the week from February 3^rd to February 11^th with 5 goals and 4 assists in 4 games. He followed it up with a better week, scoring 4 goals and adding 4 assists in just four games, and winning the honor of player of the week for two consecutive weeks.

Had it not been for an early season slump, in which Zetterberg had only 3 points in first 12 games, including 9 game pointless streak, Henrik would be right amongst the league leaders. Since the slow start, head coach Mike Babcock re-united Zetterberg with Datsyuk and lime mate Tomas Holmstrom, and the line has created magic. Hank has had 63 points (30 goals and 33 assists) in the last 49 games. If he had not been separated from Datsyuk at the beginning of the season and had been able to play at the pace he has since mid-December, Henrik would have 37 goals (2nd in NHL) and 41 assists (17^th in NHL) for 78 points (4th in NHL). That’s would put him in the company of phenomenal players such as Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburg Penguins and Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning who are contenders for major awards, such as the Hart Trophy for Most Valuable Player. While there is no doubt that Zetterberg is the Red Wings MVP, it would be a hard case to sell to nominate him for MVP of the league, unless he actually increases his scoring pace.

If he continues at the rate he is going in the past 49 games, Henrik will have 45 goals, 48 assists, and 93 total points at the end of the regular season, all career highs. If you factor in the first 12 games, he is still on pace for 43 goals and 46 assists for 89 total points, still season bests for Zetterberg.

Soaring Wing; Zetterberg's a Bona fide Candidate for the Hart Trophy

By Allan Muir, SI.com, February 22, 2007

There's no doubt that Sidney Crosby is the NHL's Most Valuable Marketing Tool. But is he the league's Most Valuable Player?

As the season heads into the straightaway, what once seemed like a no-brainer has become a legitimate question. To be sure, the teenaged scoring sensation has an arsenal of stats and achievements to back up his candidacy, including the surprising vault to legitimacy of his Penguins and his nearly insurmountable 14-point bulge in the scoring race.

But while Crosby is running away with the Art Ross, the Hart looks like it is up for grabs. There's no doubt that Martin Brodeur, with his 37 wins and 11 shutouts, belongs in the conversation. And now, after a two-month run of superlative play, so does Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg.

Zetterberg's been an upper echelon player for several years, but he's never played with this sustained level of excellence at any point in his career. As far as the Red Wings are concerned, his timing couldn't have been better.

Absent the talents of long-time leaders Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan, and with other key players such as Dominik Hasek and Chris Chelios nearing AARP eligibility, the Wings could easily have slipped into mediocrity this season. Instead, Zetterberg has put this left-for-dead gang on his back and carried them to the best record in the Western Conference.

Not that the transition was seamless. Thanks to a horrific start that saw him score just three points in his first 12 games, the success of his season isn't adequately reflected by the scoring race. There are 15 players who have more points than his 66. Eight have scored more than his 32 goals.

But in a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, Zetterberg is building his case with a remarkable run of play since Christmas. Over that span, the 26-year-old left winger has 20 goals and 47 points in just 29 games. Even Sid The Kid hasn't matched that level of production.

Zetterberg earned the nod as the NHL's first star during the past two weeks and is on his way to a three-peat. And how about this nugget: he's been the first star in nine of Detroit's last 10 victories.

Thanks to his play and that of linemates Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom, it is fair to ask if there is a more dangerous team in the NHL right now than the Red Wings. They are on a 9-2 run, and have won 13 in a row at home to move within one point of Buffalo for the overall league lead. You have to include Detroit in any discussion about Cup contenders. Without Zetterberg, they'd be alongside Colorado, looking at the playoffs from the outside.

What's really been noticeable about Zetterberg's run during that Detroit's hot streak is that he's not just scoring goals. He's scoring the big ones. After Wednesday night's victory over Chicago, he'd tallied three game-winners in a row. As the Wings clawed their way past Nashville to take over first place in the West, he's notched six of last eight winners and now has 10 on the season, a total that leads the NHL.

Those numbers are impressive, but where Zetterberg really separates himself from the pack is his Selke-worthy attention to all aspects of the game. You can dispute the value of his plus-28 rating, a mark that stands fifth in the league. But you can't argue with his success in the face-off circle, or his tireless work in his own end. The consensus around the league is that he's now the game's top two-way player.

That's important, because the odds are that he won't keep up this blistering offensive pace. But if he moves into the top 10 in scoring, and the Wings capture the West, his Hart candidacy will be impossible to ignore.

Henrik Zetterberg Interview

By David Burstyn, McKeen's Hockey Prospects Staff, February, 22, 2007

McKeen's had a chance to sit down with (Henrik Zetterberg) and ask him several questions about the direction of the team and some of his line mates.

McKeen's: This locker room has undergone many changes with the loss of several key players, namely Yzerman and Shanahan. How has this team adjusted?

Zetterberg: You are never going to replace those players. I would be naïve to tell you that. Their presence in this locker room helped to shape the Wings into Stanley Cup Champions. There is a picture above my stall where I change of Yzerman so I am fully aware of the contributions he has made every time I dress for the Red Wings. I would have to say that we as a team have managed to come together. Nicklas Lindstrom is a great leader; his resume speaks for itself. Everyone has been expected to assume more of a leadership role. This is still a room full of character and champions.

McKeen's: Things started a little slowly for you, offensively that is. How have you managed to pick up your game?

Zetterberg: Hockey, like all sports is all about confidence. I enjoy scoring, but if the team wins than in the end that is all that matters. A few games I just was not getting the bounces and at times goalies get hot. Playing with Datsyuk and Holmstrom on a daily basis, I know we will get our chances it is just a matter of time.

McKeen's: How good has the Red Wing organization been to you? Do you think much about the traditions of this original six franchise?

Zetterberg: This is a class organization through and through. Since my first training camp, I felt welcome and they have always been more than generous with me.

McKeen's: There are many Swedish born players on this team. Do you integrate any of your culture in the locker room?

Zetterberg: (Laughs) We have been trying to keep it the way it was before we all showed up. However, there is a little more Swedish flavour than years past.

McKeen's: Can you comment on the youth movement of the Red Wings. Which players have impressed you?

Zetterberg: In any organization to have good team success, it is really important to have capable young players who can not only step in but make a role for themselves. It pushes everyone a little harder and makes us more appreciative of what we have. Players like Val (Filppula) have done an excellent job of buying into team concepts and playing well when called upon.

Zetterberg Talks with WDFN

Mlive.com, (from WDFN, February 21, 2007

Mike Stone: Have you ever experienced, I know not in your NHL career, but even growing up, a stage where everything you seem to touch seems to be going into the net, every pass you make seems to lead to a goal, I mean, you've got 24 points in the last ten games, that's quite a streak:

Henrik Zetterberg: Yeah, I would say that I've never, never been doing anything like this before, so it's pretty fun, and hopefully, it will last for a while.

Stoney: Do you, when you get in one of these zones, do you just figure out and say, "You know what, I'm just going to shoot, because everything I'm shoting is either going in, or everything I'm passing to somebody else on the team is going in?"

Zetterberg: Yeah, actually, you try not to think about it, just go out and play, and just hope for the best, and when I'm playing with good linemates like Pavel and Holmstrom, you know, it makes it a lot easier for me, too.

Stoney: Now playing with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom, probably, at least, to us as fans, two guys who are completely different; you're actually somewhere in the middle because you play some bit of physical hockey, and Homer of course is physical, aPavel's really not...It's kind of a great mixture of a line because you have a guy like Datsyuk, like I said, who's not, Homer who's physical, and you, who can go either way...

Zetterberg: Yeah, it's a good mix between the three of us. I think Holmstrom does a tremendous job, for us, and he creates such...much room and time for us, and then when you give a player like Pavel an extra second, you know he's going to make a great play, and most of the time, the puck is either in the net or on the tape on your stick.

Stoney: You've had some goals this year that've been, shall we say, highlight goals, all over the country, probably all over the world because I'm sure they go back to Sweden. There was the one like Forsberg's in the Olympics, the one where you wrapped around behind the net and put it over that; how much of that stuff do you practice, or how much of that is instinct?

Zetterberg: Well, I think, when you're out playing, um, basically most of what you do is instinct; you just do something, and afterward, you think about it. But, um, like the penalty shot against the Avalanche, that's the stuff you do after practice, when you fool around with the goalie, and you know sometimes you will do it in a game, and just hopefully, it will work.

Stoney: When you do it in practice, is Dom, is Hasek harder to do it against than Ozzie?

Zetterberg: I would say that Dom, both Dom and Ozzie, they kind of, they have their own kind of style, so, I think that penalty shot works better if you go up against a butterfly goalie, I would say that it would not work on either Ozzie or Dom.

Stoney: How pissed off does Hasek get in practice when you score on him?

Zetterberg: He gets mad, so that's the fun part to going around in practice. I mean, you know you're going to shoot on Dom, and every shot he lets through, he gets really pissed, so that's just, it's amazing to see, and I've heard he's been like that for all his career.

Stoney: Pavel, as you know, had some problems in the playoffs, the last couple of seasons, everybody's waiting to see what he does in the playoffs; does he talk about that with you, does he get excited about the playoffs, to show everybody that he can be a playoff performer?

Zetterberg: I think that all of us, it's really, we're not happy about the way the last few years have been ending, and it's been way too quick in the playoffs, and I think all of us, just have to play better, and we have to play better as a team.

Stoney: For someone who's excelled so much in international competition, Hank, compare the Stanley Cup playoffs to playing in the Olympics. What's the biggest difference?

Zetterberg: Well, I think the biggest difference, in the Stanley Cup you play seven games against one team. In the Olympics, you have one game, and you have to be lucky and play really good; if you have one bad game, you're out. So I think that in the Stanley Cup it's, overall, the best team will win; in the Olympics, if you have a little luck, in a short amount of time, you can go all the way.

Stoney: You were drafted in 1999 in the seventh round, around 200 players were taken before you. Do you look back at that and laugh now, or do you think there was a reason that you didn't go until the seventh round?

Zetterberg: Well, I don't think I was good enough back then, to go higher in the rounds. I was a really small player, still not that big; I think I developed in Sweden, and they let me play in Timra, with my Swedish club, and also played in National team before they called me here, and I think that helps me a lot.

Stoney: Was Peter Forsberg everyone's idol growing up in Sweden, or was it just for forwards, and if you played D it was Nick everybody looked up to?

Zetterberg: Yeah, basically that. I think Forsberg and Sundin, was every forward's idol when I was growing up, and, of course, Nick Lidstrom, he's the best defenceman in the world, so of course a lot of young players look up to him.

Stoney: Did you like the Red Wings when you were growing up, or were you a Colorado guy because of Forsberg?

Zetterberg: Actually, I was a King guy because of Gretzky; I was a Kings fan when I was younger.

Stoney: It's interesting because the last time they were here, Gretzky had some amazing things to say about you. He put you just a notch below Crosby and Ovechkin, but he said that you work harder than anybody else in the league, that's got to make you feel good.

Zetterberg: Of course it does; when a player like that, probably the best player they ever had, says something like that about you, you get happy.

Stoney: Were you bummed at all that Forsberg ended up in Nashville?

Zetterberg: Well, it's, um, you know, it's, it would have been great to have him on the team, but it's, his team is Nashville, you know, and the team's playing good again, and he's healthy; that's the big part for him, and, you know, the good part, we're going to play him five times before the playoffs, so it's going to be some pretty good games.

Stoney: With the trading deadline coming up on the 27th, are guys getting nervous? And what do you think Ken Holland's going to pull for you guys?

Zetterberg: We don't know, actually. It's, there's a few players out there, and we all look at it, but I think we have a really good team already, so we just have to wait and see if we get any new players, or not.

Stoney: I'm just curious; what do you think America's biggest misconception of Sweden is? Is it that we think you just hang out with blonde women and listen to ABBA all day?

Zetterberg: (Laughs) Yeah, basically that, or most thing is, people think Sweden and Switzerland are the same country. That's kind popular, too.

Stoney: And how much do you like living here? Obviously, you'll probably go home when you retire, but what do you like doing here in Michigan? Is it a cool place for here?

Zetterberg: Yeah, I like it here, especially when we come over, after the summer, and you have some time to play, got some good golf courses here, and it's my fifth year here, now, so it's becoming home for me, and I really enjoy to live here.