WJC: 2015 — Sweden Roster Talk

[PRNuck]

So Nylander is going to be what his father was?

What we all fear becoming?

900+ NHL games and 650+ NHL points is no one's worst case scenario. The player W. Nylander most reminds me of is (prime) Alexander Semin. People'd probably take that as a negative comment now, but Semin, in his prime, was a formidable player. Speaking in terms of style, he's who I see when I watch Nylander. The supreme confidence that borders on arrogance with the puck, the kind of it-doesn't-count-if-you-have-to-try-too-hard air about his game, and the sneaky stick work on the forecheck.

I think he meant bald

 

[gretskidoo]

Hopefully there's a random influx of 20 new players for next year. Nobody should return except Soderstrom. Need some players that actually care.

Gronborg should be fired as well. He's a terrible coach and thinks it's ok to lose to Slovakia.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

embarrassing to watch

 

[SurMartin]

They seemed completely out of gas in the bronze game but otherwise it was an OK tournament for this team. '95 was never a good age group, we were always gonna have a better team next year. Players like Söderström, Aho, Forsling, Lagesson, Lööke, Lindblom, Holmström, Kempe, Ehn who played a major part this year should all return and hopefully Nylander as well. Add some guys like Kylington and Asplund and anything less than Bronze will be a disappointment.

 

[joe89]

The top3 Swedish players by the coaches are simply ridiculous. Hägg and DLR were extremely vanilla given their pedigree(did DLR even record a single point the last 3-4 games?). Wallmark was the best Swede in the semifinal but never got his line going. He's the most deservant of the three but still not really close to a top3 mention.

Nylander is a given and then you have Holmström, Lindblom, Forsling and Söderström competing for the other two mentions. I'd go with Holmström(PKer and his line's defensive conscience on top of his production) and Forsling(some defensive mistakes but leads the tournament in D scoring).

 

[SurMartin]

The top3 Swedish players by the coaches are simply ridiculous. Hägg and DLR were extremely vanilla given their pedigree(did DLR even record a single point the last 3-4 games?). Wallmark was the best Swede in the semifinal but never got his line going. He's the most deservant of the three but still not really close to a top3 mention.

Nylander is a given and then you have Holmström, Lindblom, Forsling and Söderström competing for the other two mentions. I'd go with Holmström(PKer and his line's defensive conscience on top of his production) and Forsling(some defensive mistakes but leads the tournament in D scoring).

I figure it was their "Thanks for long and faithful service."
Sad since Bergman played his last U20 game too...
Bergman +3
Aho +1
Lagesson +1
Norell 0
Forsling 0
Englund -1
Hägg -3

But Hägg has had a couple of high points with the national team as well, so who cares.

 

[The Winter Soldier]

He clearly deserved to make the leafs based on preseason play.

Actually, He clearly wasn't ready. I watched all the preseason games. His finish was not acceptable. He looked good at times, but also looked like a player that needed another year.

 

[VictorLustig]

One day we might have a great team so Grönborg can grab that silver.

 

[oldno7]

Lack of 95:ers

They seemed completely out of gas in the bronze game but otherwise it was an OK tournament for this team. '95 was never a good age group, we were always gonna have a better team next year. Players like Söderström, Aho, Forsling, Lagesson, Lööke, Lindblom, Holmström, Kempe, Ehn who played a major part this year should all return and hopefully Nylander as well. Add some guys like Kylington and Asplund and anything less than Bronze will be a disappointment.

All this talk about the poor 95-group. The problem is actually that there are so few of them in this team. This team need more players that are competing against men rather than playing in the juniors, look at Russia. On D you have solid players like Eidstedt, Dahlström, Pilut and Westlund in SHL and Hansson in AS that did not make the team. Not flashy but solid and more mature in the game.

 

[joe89]

I figure it was their "Thanks for long and faithful service."
Sad since Bergman played his last U20 game too...
Bergman +3
Aho +1
Lagesson +1
Norell 0
Forsling 0
Englund -1
Hägg -3

But Hägg has had a couple of high points with the national team as well, so who cares.

Bergman was our best defensive D in the tournament but I really couldn't name him after his match penalty. I would've given the -96 born players a bump and vote of confidence instead, because they carried this team and they're gonna carry next year's team too.

 

[WilliamNylander]

The top 3 was clearly just the captain and two assistant captains - doubt it means much at all.

Top 3 swedes in the tournament were Nylander Forsling and Lindblom imo.

Good tourney for such a young, inexperienced team. Next year will be a good one

 

[Appleyard]

They seemed completely out of gas in the bronze game but otherwise it was an OK tournament for this team. '95 was never a good age group, we were always gonna have a better team next year. Players like Söderström, Aho, Forsling, Lagesson, Lööke, Lindblom, Holmström, Kempe, Ehn who played a major part this year should all return and hopefully Nylander as well. Add some guys like Kylington and Asplund and anything less than Bronze will be a disappointment.

Yeh, next years team should be very good.

Kylington
Carlsson
Andersson

should all be there or thereabouts for the D.

Asplund
Forsberg
Ahl
Franzen
Ek-Eriksson
Timashov
Grundstrom

could all make legitimate plays for forward spots on the roster.

I am hoping Nylander, Lindgren and Einarsson mature physically as well, all are very exciting but 2016 may be too soon for them... even though Lindgren and Einarsson are 2015 draft eligible.

 

[VictorLustig]

Our D was fine when we didn't have the puck. Too much stone hands & turnovers when we got possession, pretty sure Hägg & Norell lead the tournament in icings for example.

 

[m4tt145]

What a disappointment to see the team not caring. I wish TOR doesn't let Nylander play next year. He scored a tap in goal, and the rest of the time he just floated around, trying to stickhandle through the defense then losing the puck. Worthless the last two games.

And what was with that stupid penalty by Bergman in the late 2nd? He should have been able to control himself. Grönborg has to learn his players to not do such things. Like the Russian coach.

 

[Prntscrn]

And what was with that stupid penalty by Bergman in the late 2nd? He should have been able to control himself. Grönborg has to learn his players to not do such things. Like the Russian coach.

Grönborg probably cheered him on

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

How would you grade the players?

 

[TheTwelfth]

Meh, overall a better than predicted result. The last two games lacked the effort though, which leaves a bad taste. The team was young though, should expect much more next year.

 

[MrStench]

I don't think the Bronze Medal Game should really factor in too much in the grading of the players. In any tournament this short and intense, having to play for third place after you've lost a semi final is problematic. You don't play for fifth place. There's no particular reason third should be considered massively more impressive than fourth. It's one thing in sports like cross country skiing or long distance running, but in an ideal world, in tournaments like this, it should be that once the group stage is over, you lose and you're out.

It's also interesting how much the apparent media consensus influences how the players are graded here. I thought Söderström was fine, but I also thought it was pretty apparent he wasn't quite good enough. He's calm and big, but he doesn't track the puck very well, his rebound control was pretty woeful and I think there's a couple of goals he would like to have back. It's like we were so desperate for the water of decent goaltending, after the trek through the desert that was the pre-tournament games against the North Americans, that we drank the sand and didn't even know the difference.

Overall, I thought most of the players were fine. With the exception of perhaps Olofsson and Brodecki, I'd give everyone a passing grade and no one any higher than that. Forsling was beastly on the powerplay but poor defensively, and the same could be said about Nylander, one presumes, if he actually played any defence.

 

[bottomofthefoodchain]

Did we have the youngest team in the tournament?

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

How would you grade the players?

http://www.hockeysverige.se/juniorbloggen/2015/01/06/spelarbetyg-sa-presterade-spelarna-i-arets-jvm/

 

[nwaZ*]

Hägg is going to bust. He just isn't a good player.

 

[MrStench]

Hägg is going to bust. He just isn't a good player.

I think it depends on how you define bust. He probably won't be an impact NHL player. Going back to 2006-07, here's how many players from each team have gone on to become regular, nevermind prominent, NHL:ers:

2007: 5 (including Jhonas Enroth, who played three games. Best career to date: Niklas Hjalmarsson or Nicklas Bäckström.)
2008: 6 (including Joakim Andersson, but not Magnus Pääjärvi. Best career to date: Victor Hedman.)
2009: 7 (charitably including both Tim Erixon and David Rundblad. Best career to date: Erik Karlsson.)
2010: 9 (including the Chicago twins, Adam Larsson and Jacob Josefson. Again, Erik Karlsson is the standout, with an honourable mention to Oliver Ekman Larsson.)
2011: 7 (including Rickard Rakell and John Klingberg. Best career to date: Gabriel Landeskog.)

Realistically (and statistically), there's perhaps a handful of players on this year's team who'll go on to carve out respectable NHL careers, and another handful who'll get a few games, or a season or two, and then return to Europe.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Excited to see Forsling develop. Looking like a real good fifth round pick!
Needs a lot of work on the defensive side but the Canucks could really use his shot on the powerplay.
I'll be following our Swedish friends updates on him and of course we'll see him again next year in the tourney and at the Canuck's prospect camp.

 

[ulvvf]

We now have around 32 straight wins or something like that in the group stage, so our game in the group stage every year still shows which level we are at, and that we are capable of total domination. So what happens in the playoffs, why do we play much worse in the playoffs against the same teams as we often dominates against in the group stage, and this almost happens every year now?

Some focus on individual players and point them out as the problem, but obviously the problem is a little deeper than that since it occurs year after year.

The coaches has a big responsible for this kind of things.

 

[joe89]

Did we have the youngest team in the tournament?

Think we and USA both had 12 underagers total. They had three double underagers, we had one, on the other hand our goalie was an underager instead.

http://www.hockeysverige.se/juniorbloggen/2015/01/06/spelarbetyg-sa-presterade-spelarna-i-arets-jvm/

Fair judgement but Nylander and Lindblom should be 4's, if others pulled their weight they wouldn't have been as easy to shut down late stages of the tournament. We ended up having one line that could score at EVS, and that makes is so much tougher on you.