By Kristina Rutherford

I think most people would be shocked to discover the “King of New York” is from a tiny hamlet.

[Laughs.] Yeah. But it was perfect. It was so small, and all about skiing. There are 1,500 people living there, tops, but during the wintertime a lot of people come there to ski and have a good time. I grew up with my twin brother and my sister and it was all about sports for us. My dad was a ski instructor, so we skied a lot, but hockey was always No. 1, and from an early age.

How small are we talking? Any traffic lights in Are [Lundqvist’s hometown in Sweden]?

No traffic lights.

Movie theatre?

Yes. When I lived there, they turned the high-school gym into the theatre. And it was a flat floor, so they’d pull out the folding chairs. If you had a tall guy in front of you, you were screwed. [Laughs.]

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