Henrik Zetterberg is not exciting.

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Just quietly excellent.

He’s been around for four seasons now. He’s improved in every one of them.

He’s never called out a coach or held out for more money (unlike some talented Red Wings I could name…).

He’s worked as hard on his defensive game as his offensive game. He’s been one of very few Red Wings to play at a high level in the playoffs. He’s been shuffled from line to line (in fact his coach, Mike Babcock, said last year that he moves him around so much in order to light a spark under other players who are dogging it) for most of his career and hasn’t uttered a peep, even though it’s clear who he prefers to play with.

He’s done all this quietly and with class. Kind of like another Detroit Red Wing we could name. But we’ll leave that for the end of this little essay.

So what’s inspiring about a guy who plays good hockey and keeps his mouth shut?

Not much until, you know, the game is actually on the line. Until his team trails going into the third period or finds itself in a tight match in overtime.

Then — still without opening his mouth or demanding the puck or assuming that it’s his show — he flat out wins the game. It’s called grace under pressure, and it’s something very few of us possess.

Zetterberg leads the league in game-winning goals. In Detroit’s last 10 wins, he’s been chosen the first star in nine of them. During the playoff push — since Christmas actually — he has more points than anyone in the league.

Here, he wins a game against Phoenix. That was one of three in that game. Here, he sets up an incredible goal to tie a game against Dallas. He scored the winner three minutes later. Here, he embarrasses Peter Budaj to win the game in a shootout.

It’s not just that those goals are clutch. And it’s not just that they’re all gorgeous examples of someone who has more talent than 99 per cent of players in the league. It’s that there’s no arrogance, no entitlement and no look-at-me antics.

I wrote a little while ago about Sidney Crosby’s reputation as a whiner. I’ve never, ever seen Henrik complain to the refs about anything. And he takes some serious punishment. In fact, if you stop him, you beat the Red Wings, so he’s guaranteed to face some dirty tactics. But he gets up, spits out a couple of teeth (he just got a couple more caps put in last week) and wins the game.

But mostly, what’s not exciting — but very inspiring — is how seriously he takes his commitment to being a great player and not just a great scorer. A lot of players — and a lot of us, if we had that kind of talent, would ignore the defensive aspect of the game. It would waste energy that could be better spent on scoring, it would leave us trapped in our own zone instead of taking breakout passes that could spring a breakaway and an easy chance for a highlight-reel goal. That’s not even an issue for Zetterberg. He’s fifth in the league in plus/minus and is a lock to win the Selke trophy for best defensive forward, unless he loses that one and wins the Hart trophy, for MVP.

The point is not that he’s a wonderful player. Obviously he is. But what makes him special is that:

a) He’s not out there revelling in the fact that he’s “arrived” as a superstar. He’s out practicing and getting even better. He’s not talking about it. He’s doing it. You tell him he’s great and he shrugs and says, “I play with great players.”

b) For all the skill he has, there are guys who have just as much talent, but — and here you’ll remember Chris Bosh — not half the heart.

That’s where the NHL-leading 10 game-winning goals come from. Not from slick skating and deft stickwork, but from that place inside him that hates losing so much that he’ll put the goddamned team on his back and do it all himself if he has to.

Wings fans recognize that attitude:

“You look at a guy like Joe Sakic or Steve Yzerman; they had all the skill in the world, but they had will and they drove the team. That’s what the great players do and that’s what (Zetterberg) does for us.” — Coach Mike Babcock

And here’s Wayne Gretzky — you’ve heard of him — after Zetterberg took his team apart.

“He plays unselfishly.

“He’s a pretty special player. Guys like (Alexander) Ovechkin and (Sidney) Crosby, who is probably the best player in the game today, and Joe Thornton’s a pretty good player, but this guy right here is one of the elite players and he probably doesn’t get enough credit for being an elite player. He’s definitely in that category of players.

And here’s Babock again, summing it up:

“He’s just got better and better, and he’s earned the right to be confident. He thinks, and he wouldn’t tell you that, but he thinks that he’s one of the best players in the league, and he is”

The key part of that sentence: “He wouldn’t tell you that.”

But he knows it.

(Coming this week: Less schmaltz, more rants. I just had to get the man-crushes out of the way.)

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