Having spent several summers competing with one another, Jacob Markstrom is the first to admit Elias Lindholm has proven his Swedish supremacy in just about every sport.
“He’s a really good golfer, tennis player and pretty much anything he tries when it comes to hand-eye coordination or ball sports,” said Markstrom of his bosom buddy. “He beats me in pretty much everything… except ping pong. I’ve got him there.”
Smiling when told of the accolades thrown his way, Lindholm is quick to offer an explanation for his table tennis troubles.
“I have a ping pong table in my basement but there’s not enough room,” said the Flames centre of his cramped quarters in Gavle, Sweden. “I can’t move down there. I like to be way behind the table, but I can’t play my game down there. I blame it on that.”
Neither player has needed excuses since returning to Calgary, where the duo hit the halfway mark in contention for significant league hardware: Markstrom as a Vezina candidate and Lindholm as a Selke threat, as the league’s top defensive forward.
Fresh off an all-star break that has the Flames slated to kick off the second half with seven straight home games, the two men who’ve played such huge roles in the team’s first-half success were asked about one another’s superb starts.
Neither was shy about pumping the other one’s tires.
“I feel like they really should look at (Lindholm) for the Selke,” said Markstrom, whose pal sits fourth in the NHL at plus-29 while anchoring the loop’s most productive trio.
“I see him every day on the same team and he matches up with the other teams’ best players. Against Florida he matches up against (Aleksander) Barkov, and players like that, who are in the (Selke) conversation every year.
“When you look at plus-minus and stuff like that he’s always, game-to-game, playing against them and he’s always ahead of them, with better numbers.”
Barkov was last year’s Selke winner, beating a field that included perennial favourites Patrice Bergeron, Mark Stone and Ryan O’Reilly.
Needing solid offensive numbers to even have a chance at Selke consideration, Lindholm finished 10th in voting two seasons back.
As impressive as his 15 goals and 37 points in 42 games have been, it’s his defensive work that has allowed Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk to score at a pace that has them sitting amongst league leaders.
“This year he’s playing with Johnny and Chuckie, who have been great putting up a ton of points lately as well,” said Markstrom. “I feel like those two work really well, and they can play their game extremely well, and he’s kind of the guy who keeps it all together. Especially defensively, he does a lot of hard work that goes silent.”
When it was pointed out no Swedish player has ever won the Selke, Markstrom was happy to discuss the rich history of top Swedes.
“We have a lot of good offensive players. The (Sedin) twins won the scoring title back-to-back years, then there’s (Peter) Forsberg and (Markus) Naslund and those guys, to name a few,” he said.
“Then there’s (Henrik) Zetterberg in Detroit for a lot of years who was really offensive and defensive, and I think Lindy is up there and should be talked about a little bit more.
“I think the reporters who vote on the Selke should watch more Flames games.”
What they’d see is a former winger who has proven conclusively this season he’s a top, two-way centre in this league.
“I take a lot of pride in defence,” said Lindholm, drafted fifth overall in 2013 by Carolina.
“I think it was Rod Brind’Amour who told me, ‘if you do it right defensively, all the rest will come to you. You don’t have to chase it.’ It’s something I always kept in mind. It’s kind of what my thoughts are out there. I try to do it right and obviously playing with Chucky and Johnny the offence comes by itself. Those two are amazing to play with.”
So is Markstrom, who has been every bit as dominant as Brad Treliving hoped when he lured him to Calgary with a six-year, $36 million deal two summers ago.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” said Lindholm of a netminder who sits third amongst NHL starters with a 2.20 goals-against average, not to mention seven shutouts, which not only has him on pace to shatter Miikka Kiprusoff’s club record (10), but has him threatening Tony Esposito’s modern-day mark of 15.
“(He’s) been amazing so far for us and won us a lot of games. He should be talked about more often too. There’s a lot of good goalies but Marky is definitely in the top and doesn’t get the credit he deserves, that’s for sure.”
Markstrom said shutouts isn’t a stat he looks at.
“No, it’s more about keeping goals-against average as low as possible, and getting wins,” said the man with the 17-10-5 record and .923 save percentage.
“Me personally, that’s what I look at most. You want to be in the net and help the team win as many times as possible, and when it comes down to it that’s what matters.
“You don’t get any bonus points for a shutout or a good save percentage.”
Or for beating up on your pal in ping pong.
