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Best swedish fighter

Star Ocean

Star Ocean

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Dec 30, 2018
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I know there hasnt been many swedish fighters, but who was the best?

Did any swede ever win a fight?
 
mattias ohlund had fights with iginla and phaneuf where he really was just holding on but he was so big and strong he didn't get pummelled and he did get a few in at the end of the fight. but that was a man who should have killed guys but he just flat out did not know how to fight.

i can't think of anyone offhand. how was mattias norstrom? i have no recollection of him fighting but i feel like he could be a guy who could have taken care of himself.
 
GMR said:
Certainly the best Swedish born fighter. As far as fighters raised in Sweden, there's not much to choose from. At least the Finns had Sami Helenius.
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danincanada said:
Lilja wasn't a bad fighter. He made a huge mistake when he picked a fight with Weber though. That was a career changer I'm sure he regrets.

Jonathan Ericsson is a better answer though. He could handle himself quite well. He reminded Corey Perry that Swedes still have that Viking blood running through their veins.
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Lilja held his own with Boll, Souray, Moen.

If Dolph Lundgren played hockey this thread would have its answer. But alas.
 
tony d said:
Was Ulf Samuelsson much of a fighter?
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I don't think so. He probably hung in there against non-heavy weights. Fighting just isn't and hasn't been part of European hockey culture the same way it's been part of NA hockey culture.

Particularly staged fighting comes across as super weird to me in a ball sport context. In the earlier eras of organized NA hockey staged fighting didn't exist. If you read early match reports it's often full of over-the-top violence, but there's never a moment (to my recollection) where two players drop their gloves to box each other, to settle a personal beef (or for P.T. Barnum reasons). Though I'm not saying it could never not have happened, it probably could have, I just don't remember it, and I read an unhealthy amount of pre-consolidation match reports. If something happened it was because players got mad at each other and slashed at each other, swung their sticks, or elbowed or hit each other spontaneously or in retaliation.

I haven't read a lot of post-consolidation stuff (1925–1990) but I have a suspicion here that the staged fighting could have something to do with the televised game. To me, it feels synonymous to the 90s goon era with the glowing puck. Synonymously cheap and fake and dumb.
 
European sports violence has been more in the fan realm, with the football/soccer hooliganism, et cetera.
 
Douglas Murray had tremendous strength and he could fight anyone as this video shows



Apparently he had 28 fights in NHL and couple of more in AHL and he won most of them
 
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The only Swedish enforcers I’ve ever known of, are Ulf Samuelsson and Douglas Murray, and I have a feeling many enforcers would be insulted by being lumped together with Ulfie.

I’ve never been too interested in or very enthused about the fighting aspect of the game, and really can’t attest to the prowess of any fighter, however I went by Hockeyfights.com to find out which Swedish players had at least five fights listed in the NHL, regular and postseason. Not sure how complete or accurate, but:

Ulf Samuelsson: 58
Douglas Murray: 30
Thomas Steen: 20
Jonathan Ericsson: 16
Mats Hallin: 13
Gabriel Landeskog: 13
Tomas Sandström: 13
Andreas Lilja: 12
Marcus Nilson: 12
Kjell Samuelsson: 12
Ricard Persson: 10
Mattias Öhlund: 10
Thommie Bergman: 9
Anders Hedberg: 9
Christian Folin: 6
Victor Hedman: 6
Lars Lindgren: 6
Stefan Persson: 6
Michael Thelven: 6
Niclas Wallin: 6
Ulf Dahlen: 5
Marcus Pettersson: 5
Börje Salming: 5

Thomas Steen surprised me for having the third most fights of all players on this list. It did seem, though, that most Swedes of the 70s and 80s had at least one but often a few fights listed. Having heard several old Swedish players talk about their North American experience, it seems there is some merit to their accounts of being tested because of being Euros, or feeling forced into fighting.
 
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Yozhik v tumane said:
Ulf Dahlen: 5
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This was also surprising. Dahlén played 966 and only had 230 PIMs. He’s placed 16th in games by a Swedish player, but 75th in PIMs. According to NHL.com, 52 Swedes have played 650+ games, and the only ones with less PIMs than Dahlén are Mats Näslund, Mikael Andersson and Loui Eriksson, with Eriksson the only one near Dahlén in games played. Dahlén looks squeaky clean, to see that he had five fighting majors was quite the surprise.
 
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Yozhik v tumane said:
The only Swedish enforcers I’ve ever known of, are Ulf Samuelsson and Douglas Murray, and I have a feeling many enforcers would be insulted by being lumped together with Ulfie.

I’ve never been too interested in or very enthused about the fighting aspect of the game, and really can’t attest to the prowess of any fighter, however I went by Hockeyfights.com to find out which Swedish players had at least five fights listed in the NHL, regular and postseason. Not sure how complete or accurate, but:

Ulf Samuelsson: 58
Douglas Murray: 30
Thomas Steen: 20
Jonathan Ericsson: 16
Mats Hallin: 13
Gabriel Landeskog: 13
Tomas Sandström: 13
Andreas Lilja: 12
Marcus Nilson: 12
Kjell Samuelsson: 12
Ricard Persson: 10
Mattias Öhlund: 10
Thommie Bergman: 9
Anders Hedberg: 9
Christian Folin: 6
Victor Hedman: 6
Lars Lindgren: 6
Stefan Persson: 6
Michael Thelven: 6
Niclas Wallin: 6
Ulf Dahlen: 5
Marcus Pettersson: 5
Börje Salming: 5

Thomas Steen surprised me for having the third most fights of all players on this list. It did seem, though, that most Swedes of the 70s and 80s had at least one but often a few fights listed. Having heard several old Swedish players talk about their North American experience, it seems there is some merit to their accounts of being tested because of being Euros, or feeling forced into fighting.
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For some reason I thought Salming fought a lot more than that.
 
Moose Head said:
For some reason I thought Salming fought a lot more than that.
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I wasn’t sure what to expect, thought maybe he might have “had to”, especially early on.
Also not sure how accurate the stats are, have they obtained all 1970s and 80s game logs?
 
In late 90´s and early 2000´s I remember being some Euros who went to lower minor leagues and kind of tried (i guess) to carve themselves a career in NA by playing physical hockey and even fight. Raitis Ivanans is the only one I remember succeeding in it.

I´m not sure about Andreas Sjölund´s motives, but do remember him getting lots of fights in WCHL.
Andreas Sjolund Hockey Stats and Profile at hockeydb.com
 
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