You also have to remember that current Sweden is maybe 1/4 the team what Sweden used to have with Foppa, Näslund, Sedins, Lidström etc.
1/4,
really? Sounds like crazy hyperbole, and chronologically confused seeing as those old names rarely assembled during their respective peaks. Which iteration of the Swedish national team are we even talking about here? Did we ever see all these players both in their primes and on the same roster? Näslund wasn’t there in 2006, the Sedins hadn’t hit their stride as elite players and Forsberg was gimp when that generation finally won something, after a decade of disappointments. I feel like the best possible Team Sweden with its golden generation should have been a hypothetical one somewhere between 1996-2004, but they always had flaws such as positional depth and goaltending, or — crucially — actually getting everything together and not choking.
That current projections of Team Sweden is a quarter the best team with those names is a terrible exaggeration. Today’s Team Sweden may lack the immense star power of Forsberg, Sundin, peak Alfredsson, peak Näslund, but it does look deeper than most Swedish forward groups historically. I’m not taking anyone above Sundin, but I’d take all of Zibanejad, Pettersson, Lindholm, and probably William Karlsson as well over Michael Nylander for #2C. Lidström was rarely the hero for Team Sweden that his NHL reputation would suggest, but even if he was Bobby Orr incarnate, Sweden’s D-corps is looking better with its 3-4 Norris level players of recent history than it ever did with Lidström et al. The golden generation also got by with below average goaltending, at least at the world stage, until young Lundqvist finally arrived for their last hurrah. Hard to argue that whatever flavor of the season all-star projected to start for Team Sweden trumps Lundqvist, but at least Sweden’s had great other options for a few years now whereas the golden generation usually had Tommy Salo, who at best was a very average NHL goalie, and not much else.
All’s to say, there have been stronger iterations of Team Sweden than the best possible of today, but Sweden’s definitely not at 1/4 of its historical best. Absolute peak offensive stars have dropped, but other positions are deeper and stronger.
