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Gustavsson aims to emulate King Henrik

Image (1) Gustavsson-thumb-250x166-7924.jpg for post 520

Jonas Siegal of the Eat.Sleep.Leafs. Blog on AM 640 has some great quotes from Jonas Gustavsson, as he talks about his reverence for Swedish goaltending legend Henrik Lundqvist.

“For myself, why I liked to watch Lundqvist was he played a style I liked and I tried to follow it a bit back then. I liked to do similar stuff because he was so explosive and aggressive in the net. Before that the goalies were just standing up and trying to save the pucks. If it was a good play, maybe it was an open net, they didn’t care so much. This guy Lundvist, he just played with so much explosiveness so he could just take himself to all around it, like most goalies play now in the NHL. Before that goalies didn’t play like that so I think that’s the biggest reason for me why I liked watching because he played the game that I liked”.

Gustavsson is on his way to staking his claim as the Leafs’ starting goaltender for the future, and I’m hearing that a contract extension is in the works.

Just as everyone should have expected, he needed some time to adjust to the NHL. He’s come on strong after the Olympic break, and the Leafs -- despite their AHL caliber roster -- are playing their best hockey of the season.

They could play serious spoiler down the stretch, and it starts tonight against the New York Rangers.