TAMPA, Fla. -- To watch Victor Hedman navigate his way through a neutral zone full of New York Rangers like he did in Game 5, well, it just takes your breath away.

That a 6-foot-6, 230-pound behemoth of a man on the Tampa Bay Lightning blue line can smoothly skate end to end with such finesse makes you wonder where this 24-year-old talent will end up, once his arc has fully reached its peak.

He’s not far from it.

"From what I've seen this year, it has impressed me," fellow Swede and seven-time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom said of Hedman via email to ESPN.com. "Victor's offensive skills and his speed have been impressive. It seems like he's been carrying the puck up the ice and making plays."

The look on Hedman’s face when we informed him of his admirer from back home? Let’s just say the young man’s face lit up.

"He made everything look so easy," Hedman said of the legendary Lidstrom. "So calm with the puck, and his head up all the time. I don’t think he ever looked down at the puck. He made those hard plays look so easy. He’s a winner. He won four Cups, Norris Trophies, everything. He was obviously one of the players I looked up to before I came over here. Just a remarkable defenseman and one of the best to ever play the game."

Lidstrom is a hero to any young Swedish blueliner, to be sure, and Hedman is no different, but there’s a big place in his heart for a hometown superstar who helped pave the way.

Peter Forsberg is a hockey god in the northern town of Ornskoldsvik, where Hedman also hails from. It’s where the Swedish league club Modo is based, a team that over the years has also produced the likes of Anders Hedberg, Markus Naslund, Niklas Sundstrom, the Sedin twins, Samuel Pahlsson, Mattias Timander and Toby Enstrom, among others.

"You look at it, it’s pretty incredible the players that have come out of there," Hedman said. "For me to grow up there, it’s huge. Peter, Markus, all those guys setting the tone. Anders Hedberg was the first one -- he played in New York a long time. The Sedin twins ... you can go on and on. It’s just incredible. When you look back on it, to have that childhood and that opportunity to play in that town, the heritage that you had growing up, it’s pretty incredible to be at this stage now. It’s something that I really appreciate."

We’re talking about a town of 27,000 people. The per capita ratio of producing this many high-end hockey players is just mind-boggling.

Legendary defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said he has been impressed by Victor Hedman this season. Harry How/Getty Images

Hedman jokes that perhaps there’s something in the water.

"Just a good hockey town, rinks everywhere, outdoor and indoor," said Hedman, whose long hair and facial hair give him the appearance of a Metallica stand-in. "I had a small rink right beside my house, and we were there every day. You’re skating for hours and hours, you go home to eat, and then you go out again. Get the lights on when it gets dark. Just all about hockey. You really appreciate looking back at it."

Oh, but Foppa. Hedman could talk all day about the Hockey Hall of Famer.

"Peter, just the passion that he played with, the killer instinct. He always wanted to win," said Hedman, the second overall pick in the 2009 draft. "That’s kind of what I wanted to be like, have the winning mentality that he had. He was tough to play against. Those hits he made protecting the puck, just the way he battled every game, it was impressive to watch and something that I really looked up to."

They’ve gotten to know each other over the years, not just because the hockey community is a tight-knit one in their town but also because they’ve been involved in the same charity team every summer since Hedman was 16.

"We raise money for kids. Markus [Naslund] started it a long time ago," Hedman said. "As the years have gone on, I’ve gotten to know Peter better and better, got to play with him too, in Modo when he was making a comeback."

Hedman finds himself one win away from a berth in the Stanley Cup finals, with Game 6 on tap Tuesday at Amalie Arena. The thought of bringing Lord Stanley’s mug back to Ornskoldsvik, just like Forsberg and Pahlsson did, well, that would be the ultimate.

As it stands, Hedman is giving back to his community by running a hockey school for kids in the summer.

"I want to give back as much as I can to my hometown," he said. "A hockey school was my No. 1 priority. ... Just to see the thrill in the kids’ eyes is worth it all. One of my friends set everything up, and it sold out in two hours. They’re so popular, and kids want to come back. It’s something I take pride in, for it to be a fun experience and see the kids smiling and having fun."

Hedman himself, despite his all-world talent, needed to put the extra work in as a kid, specifically on his skating.

"I had to work on it big time," Hedman said. "I was growing very quickly when I was younger. My body couldn’t really keep up with me. I was tall and skinny and had trouble with coordination. It wasn’t something that came to me. I put in a lot of work. But at the same time, it was fun. Now, every summer, I try to get better and faster. I can’t take any days off with that, because I need to keep improving and keep it up. Obviously, one of my biggest strengths [now] is my skating."

That’s an understatement. It makes you wonder how Sweden left him off their Sochi Olympic roster last year. Then again, they brought Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Sochi just to leave him on the bench.

The Swedes are deeply talented, especially on the blue line, but their not finding room for Hedman was nothing short of a monumental blunder.

"Well, you know, I believe in myself and believe in my game," Hedman said when pressed on the Olympic snub. "I felt I played good enough to be in the conversation to be on that team, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the coach to pick the team he thinks will win the tournament. You have to live with that. You can be disappointed, but [at] the same time, you have to move forward."

Perhaps too hurt by it all, Hedman says he didn’t watch a single game of the Olympic tournament.

"I was in Anguilla. The internet connection was not good," he said with a laugh.

Come to think of it, it's hard to believe his defense partner, Anton Stralman, 28, didn’t make that Olympic team either.

The pair now form one heck of a tandem for the Lightning, and they’ve been dominating in these playoffs, which was part of the allure for Stralman to leave the Rangers and sign with Tampa Bay as an unrestricted free agent the past summer.

"I never had a Swedish D-partner over here before," Stralman said. "It was exciting to get a chance to play alongside him and see how good he really is. I’ve always kept an eye on him but never really saw how good he was and what a complete player he is."

In many ways, Stralman has been good for Hedman. They complete each other well, and it’s as if Stralman’s steady, safe game has allowed Hedman to do his thing -- and his thing has impressed Stralman.

"He’s got the full package. He’s got size, speed, the shot, physical game, tremendous passes. He’s got a lot of good stuff," Stralman said. "It’s fun to see him playing great for us. I think in that 6-5 [OT] game he was a beast for us, by far the best player on the ice. It’s great to see too that he usually excels in these types of situations as well. If he would have been healthy all year, you would have seen him up in the points standings. He’s quite a beast out there."

The mutual admiration is clear.

"Coming to training camp, talking a bit over last summer, we were hoping we might get to play together," Hedman said of Stralman. "Right from first day of training camp, you could feel the chemistry right away. We read each other real well. I think we both have good hockey sense. We just have to keep improving on that. ... He’s been great, not only for me but for the whole team."

Perhaps the only tension that might arise between these two is who gets the Cup first this summer, if Tampa Bay wins it: Stralman for his native Tibro or Hedman to the hockey factory of Ornskoldsvik?

It’s a debate they’d both dream to have.