I think that's because people appreciate forwards more than defensemen. It's true that we've had a fantastic surge of elite d-men but that's been at the cost of equally good forwards. There's no Forsbergs, Sundins, Näslunds, Alfredssons, Sedins or Zetterbergs in the pipeline, which I would prefer to having a strong d-core at the end of the day.
WJC: 9 years without a loss in the group stage
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I think that's because people appreciate forwards more than defensemen. It's true that we've had a fantastic surge of elite d-men but that's been at the cost of equally good forwards. There's no Forsbergs, Sundins, Näslunds, Alfredssons, Sedins or Zetterbergs in the pipeline, which I would prefer to having a strong d-core at the end of the day.
Classicnamesup
MVP Backhand Slapper
Thanks. Glad to see, Sweden is not a very big country but they produce some great hockey players,
Sweden
tmlms13
Registered User
Uno Bench
Swedish citizen
- Mar 7, 2012
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Yes impressive WJC streak! Where are the NHL-players to show for it, though? One star player Karlsson, a couple of good promising ones like Hedman, Landeskog, OEL, Klingberg, Brodin, Silfverberg, Lindholm and Forsberg. Still to few and far between for beeing a dominating force at the juniors for a decade.
I think the reason for that is in the system and unwritten codes of the NHL though, no need to look further than the draft. Hade nationality not been an issue, Swedish players should have been drafted as high and as many as for example US-born-players, and they have not
You mean the calendar year 2006 and not the 2006 World Juniors? Because they lost a groupstage game to Russia in Vancouver, but technically that game took place in 2005.
Incredible feat nonetheless.
Sweden is doing this with 53.000 players and hockey being number 2 (or 1b) sport. Meanwhile in Finland, hockey is number 1 by lightyears with 73.000 players. Really the diffrence between system that is actually managed versus badly corrupted system. It's also funny that number of promising swedes in NHL system is like 4-5 times the number of promising finns if you exclude goaltending. Sweden has been superior both absolutely and relatively last decade. Bra jobbat!
Corrupted? Ok.. and btw; Sweden got ~43 000 U-20 players while Finland have ~ 40 000. http://www.iihf.com/iihf-home/the-iihf/survey-of-players/
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czechcanadian
Registered User
I will never forget the name... Libor Sulak... Horrible defensive blunder right before the end of the second when we were already up 3-1 and it led to a Finnish goal. Czechs played darn well in that game. Funny thing is that Finland went on to win the Gold that year...
Thanks god I didn't see the game
Libor Sulak...hear that name for the first time.
colchar
Registered User
- Apr 26, 2012
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Nice accomplishment but gold medals are the goal so not really that important in the grand scheme of things.
Zero Pucks Given
American Hero
Neat stuff. Kind of a bummer that it didn't translate into more than just 1 gold in that time frame.
Actually the main goal is to produce top level talent even when the pool of players isn't that big and Sweden is doing just that.
WarriorofTime
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- Jul 3, 2010
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I can't believe Finland has won the World Juniors more than Sweden, especially considering how competitive Sweden is every year. It seems like they're always in the Gold Medal game.
They get it back in Olympics where Finland is always in medal games but never wins.
czechcanadian
Registered User
Thanks god I didn't see the game
Haha yeah it was bad. If Czechs went into the 3rd period still up 3-1, then that game would have been a loooot different. Really unfortunate. Sulak will only be remembered for that blunder haha
czechcanadian
Registered User
Thanks god I didn't see the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocq4zC0zTRc
Questionable call on the tieing goal from Finland too.
Hemsky001
Registered User
- May 17, 2012
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That's 1 won final of 5. Not so impressive if you ask me but reaching a final is already a success, that's for sure. Other teams could only wish.
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Ya Sweden has had a bunch of close calls in recent years and also came close with the "Forseberg generation", but the thing is Sweden hasn't always been great at this level. As was pointed out up thread Sweden flirted with relegation a few times and was pretty terrible for the first half of the aughts. All the stuff that has been said about the decline of Czech hockey in recent years (and they have started to rebound) was being said about Sweden a decade ago.
I am sorry in advance for going off topic but...
czechcanadian mentioned WJC 2014 and I gotta mention the other match - Cze-Rus in 2012 - I will never forget how angry I was after the game winning OT goal which was scored right after one of russian players hit with his stick Daniel Krejci's face. Of course, the faul was never whistled. Krejci was down on the ice and the Russians score... We played pretty good hockey and it was an even match.. that was kind of disappointing moment which I vivdly remember and for me it's much sorer than the 2014 loss... The team was fun to watch and Mrazek was amazing..
Since it was played in Canada and the game was played sometime around 3 am CET, I also remeber going to school (angry) right after the match and that I didn't even go to sleep that night
I think among the d-men there are far more then just Karlsson. Also, OEL, Hedman, Klingberg, you can make a case for them being all top 5 among the d-men in the world, and it do not end there. The elite and deph among d-men is like nothing before in swedish hockey history, nothing come even close.
Forwards yes to few elite that have become elite, but the deph among forwards is now a lot better then during the Forsberg or Sedin generation, to show that we have huge increase of NHL players. Remember that many still are like 17-22
I do think scouts are favoring the players that they are familiar with and is easist to create hype around, which often means players that plays in NA or are from NA. NHL is very much about creating hype.
czechcanadian
Registered User
I am sorry in advance for going off topic but...
czechcanadian mentioned WJC 2014 and I gotta mention the other match - Cze-Rus in 2012 - I will never forget how angry I was after the game winning OT goal which was scored right after one of russian players hit with his stick Daniel Krejci's face. Of course, the faul was never whistled. Krejci was down on the ice and the Russians score... We played pretty good hockey and it was an even match.. that was kind of disappointing moment which I vivdly remember and for me it's much sorer than the 2014 loss... The team was fun to watch and Mrazek was amazing..
Since it was played in Canada and the game was played sometime around 3 am CET, I also remeber going to school (angry) right after the match and that I didn't even go to sleep that night
Yeah that was an annoying game too. But wasn't that high stick on a follow through of a shot? Therefore it doesn't count as a penalty. Or am I wrong? That's what I was told and what the commentators were saying.
