SHL Spotlight: Nils Lundkvist

The Team

Luleå Hockey entered this season as one of the favorites to both win the regular season and also make it far in the playoffs, possibly winning the championship in the end. But when we talk, Nils Lundkvist´s team has racked up seven straight losses and find themselves in fifth place looking down. With 79 points, they are just one point in the clear from a possible first round play. During this streak, Lundkvist does point out something:

"We haven't been outplayed during any game here. It is a bit frustrating. Or rather, we are dissapointed that we haven't gained more points. The whole group feel that we've played better then what the points show." the defenseman says, continuing: "We feel there are minor things to be tinkered with for us to turn things around. There's a bitter taste to it. But we have four games to turn it around."

Luleå has one championship to their name back in 1996, but over the past few years they have been a prominent top team in the SHL. The seven game losing streak is the longest they've had in years, surpassing a six game losing streak back in 2014.

"But it is better to have the dip in play right now rather than in the playoffs. If we turn things around now, we can enter the playoffs in good shape" Lundkvist says.

The League

He's only 20 years old but Nils Lundkvist has already in the middle of his fourth year with the Luleå Hockey first team. Coming in to the first team, and thereby the SHL, Lundkvist had to make some adjustments:

"Yeah, I needed to adjust big time. I had no expectations to be playing with the first team by then, but I started off pretty well with the U20 team that season. I remember being really nervous." he laughs.

He describes the SHL as a league built on speed. With many skilled players, the games usually comes down to an individual effort to decide it one way or another: "The pace is really high. Many teams play the same way, they forecheck high, and the chances are few. I'd say the league is defined by its speed."

{!A}

The Player

Born in Piteå, a small municipality 60 kilometres south of Luleå and 80 kilometres north of Skellefteå, Nils Lundkvist spent his younger years watching SHL hockey in both towns.

"Piteå is a pretty devided town. My family is also devided. On my dads side, it is mostly Skellefteå. On my mothers side its mostly Luleå. I've been to hockey in both towns. Skellefteå were red-hot in the early 2010's. My grandpa (on my mother´s side) took me to the Luleå games." he says.

Things moved quicker as Lundkvist came up in age. He says that after he represented the region of Norrbotten in the traditional Swedish tournament TV-pucken, played between 15 year-olds in regional teams in Sweden, he got to know some people in Luleå. And when they asked the young Lundkvist to start playing with their U16 team at the age of 15, he started commuting there and back from Piteå.

How did you cope with that?

"Oh, it worked pretty well. The support from my family was huge. My parents and my grandparents drove me. They put in a lot of time for me and I'm very grateful for that" he says with a humble voice.

With twelve goals to his name so far in the season, Nils Lundkvist has been a contributor all over the ice. And his latest goal, a breakaway against Skellefteå where he read a set play in the defensive zone begs a question.

Have you always been a d-man?

"I became a defenseman pretty early but I did try playing wing and center as well. But I moved on to playing defense early, I don't really know why." he says. "When playing wing you have to chase the puck often. But when you're playing D you get to have the puck quite a lot and that came naturally to me."

{!B}

And while we are on the subject of that goal against Skellefteå. After that very goal, one could see Lundkvist joking with the TV reporter and being upbeat. And that's not the first time.

Are you always that upbeat and easy-going?

"I try to. I try to be happy and spread joy. Hockey is fun and you get to talk more [with the media] when things are going well. When things are going poorly, they send one of the captains to stand there and try to defend the team" he laughs.

"But it's more fun to listen to someone who's smiling. And everything is easier when you have a smile on your face and if you try to see on things in a positive light. And I rarely get to stand there when we've been playing bad. When that happens, even I can get cranky."

How do you cope with setbacks?

"We try to handle setbacks as a team. There are many to talk to. I talk with Erik Gustafsson a lot. He always tells me never to be completely satisfied but at the same time not to be too hard on myself."

Lundkvist says he tries to be as self-critical as possible. He watches the things he does good and the things that needs improvement. He says that feedback is easy to get from both coach Henrik Strid as well as his partner Gustafsson.

"I've played with the first team for a few years now. I've had seasons where things haven't been as good, where I may have had higher expectations on myself. But you learn a lot going through adversity." he says, continuing:

"I talk to Erik all the time. We try to find solutions to everything. He talks a lot, on the ice, off the ice. During video sessions. When we're heading into a game, we go through the specifics we might face with that particular team. It's a perfect fit playing with him. I learn a lot."

{!C}

There's another pretty cool tie to Luleå yet to be mentioned in the story of Nils Lundkvist. His father, Niclas, is the Sports manager of Skellefteå AIK. His uncle on his mother´s side, Jan Sandström, played in the Swedish Elite League/SHL between 1997 and 2018, representing AIK and Luleå. And during Sandström´s final year, uncle and nephew played together.

"I felt reassured having 'Janne' there when I came up to the first team. He'd known me since I was a toddler and he knew the club. He carried a lot of respect in the locker room. That was pretty cool."

Could you ever imagine playing with him at all?

"No, not really." he says with a laughter of someone who almost still can't believe it happened. "It was more of a dream. But that summer, in 2017, we felt that if it were to happen it would be that season. I probably dreamt of practising with him and in that way get a feeling of being on the same team as my uncle, someone who'd been playing top tier hockey since before I was born."

But there was more than a practice. The two actually played in the SHL togehter. On the same defensive pairing. "As things would unfold, he got injured which opened up a roster spot for me. And when he got back, we got to play a game or two together and I got to sit next to him in the locker room on the road."

Family story time over, we turn our focus to the present - and the future. In 2018, Lundkvist got drafted by the New York Rangers with the 28th pick overall. And there's that dream.

"Like everyone else playing hockey, I dream of playing in the NHL. It's a huge honor being a player drafted by the New York Rangers. We'll see if and when the opportunity and chance to play there presents itself. As long as I keep playing well, maybe my chance will come. But I focus on what's here and now. I'll cross that bridge if I get there." Lundkvist says with afterthought.

He's got other business to attend to. Getting his Luleå team ready for the playoffs, for instance.

Trivia

Favorite movie: "The Blind Side"

Favorite TV Show: "La Casa De Papel"

Music genre of choice: "Swedish music"

Food of choice when cooking: "Aw, man… I suck as a chef. But..tacos. Yeah, tacos would be my thing."

Favorite NHL Team: "Haha, the New York Rangers."