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Worst time for Swedes in the NHL?

Slap said:
That's an odd group considering Czech has been declining for years and Denmark, Norway, Austria and Germany have never had many players in the NHL. Might aswell add Zimbabwe and Ecuador.
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They have more NHL players than Finland, Czech, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Germany, Zimbabwe, and Ecuador combined
 
Snauen said:
They are a "mountain people", they are not good at team-sport generally, more indivdual minded, compared to Swedes who is known to be good at team sports in general, if generalizing..
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Or maybe less culture for hockey and no will from the government to build ice rinks. In Sweden every small town has an ice rink while in Norway the 5th biggest urban area (Around the size of Örebro) doesn't even have an ice rink while the 2nd and 4th largest urban areas doesn't have a hockey team in the top division (Would be the 4th and 5th urban areas in size in Sweden after Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö). Still Norway has better teams both in women handball (For years, but the swedish women team are starting to become good) and men's handball (Recently). In soccer Sweden have been better for years, but it looks to get closer in the coming years and the last two matches was draws where Norway managed to throw away a 2-0 lead at home. Also in general if a sport is popular in both Sweden and Norway who have a quite similar culture then Sweden in a team sport in general should be better as for every norwegian there is two swedes.

It's not like norwegians live in the mountains like you talk about. You have approximately the same urbanisation in both countries. In swedens 10 biggest urban areas according to wiki you have approx 3,3 millions living in those places. That is 33% of the population in Sweden. While in Norway you have 2,15 million in the 10 biggest urban areas which is 43% of the population.

I don't really see the swedes is especially good in team sport point either. Countries with around the same population like Belgia and Portugal have both done much better in the most popular sport (Soccer) in the 3 countries. You are good in hockey, but it is very few countries who plays it so the competition isn't that high to be one of the best.
 
Kuz said:
... I don't really see the swedes is especially good in team sport point either. Countries with around the same population like Belgia and Portugal have both done much better in the most popular sport (Soccer) in the 3 countries. You are good in hockey, but it is very few countries who plays it so the competition isn't that high to be one of the best.
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Talk about cherrypicking. Belgium currently has a strong national team, which they didn't for a very long time. Sweden has more international medals than Belgium overall. Portugal can play football all year around and is primarily a football nation only. Still, Portugal has basically only been successful during this late era.

Speaking of handball, funny how we should just ignore Sweden was the powerhouse in handball for a very long time (a decade or so, 1990s to 2000s). Also the only nation that once challenged China in table tennis, having produced some legends in that sport. Not to mention the former legends in tennis, track and field, skiing, etc. Also having the best player in carambole history (Torbjörn Blomdahl), considered the most difficult form of snooker/ billiard).

You're talking bollocks, Sweden has punched way above their weight in many sports. That the country has a dip sports wise now is because of many reasons. One big reason is so many young Swedish athletes choose to play that ridiculous sport floorball, e-sports and the alarming reports that incredibly many children between 7-12 don't participate in sports, or quit. The decline in sports activities is as much as 37% and 233 of 290 municipalities have seen a decline.
 
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I think there's plenty good Swedes, we just lack the players at the very top right now, that happens sometimes, don't see it as a trend. Maybe EP will be one to take that step.
 
Sweden still has the second best defense in the world of hockey and a lot of quantity in offense so I would not be worried.
 
It's also the wrong kind of Swedes in the league. Instead of a few superstars at the top, we now have half a million of unknown ones taking up space in the bottom six, where they don't hit, don't score, don't fight, and pretty much do nothing for the entertainment of this league.

For the record; I'm swedish before y'all go full Cherry on me.
 
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beukeboom said:
It's also the wrong kind of Swedes in the league. Instead of a few superstars at the top, we now have half a million of unknown ones taking up space in the bottom six, where they don't hit, don't score, don't fight, and pretty much do nothing for the entertainment of this league.

For the record; I'm swedish before y'all go full Cherry on me.
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They are professional, well earning, successful athletes in a sport. What the heck do you ask of them? "They're boring." Do you understand the question you're asking then? Then what are the developing, modern directives of the sport? Or are you actually claiming the NHL has become boring because of solid, two-way Swedish players? And then you claim you're Swedish to justify your claim on the criticism. That is utterly ridiculous.

How about the coaching then? No? Why do you think Swedish players are so popular in the current coaching systems in the NHL? Ever thought of that? Why are Swedish middle of the line players so successful at keeping their jobs? Because they play to win, not according to the fans, but for the team. They don't stand out, but they get the wins.

Or do you actually blame the Swedish way of playing hockey has become a new norm in the NHL? Maybe that arises some other questions you should ask yourself before coming out with such a shallow argument, while claiming you're Swedish yourself? Use some reflection.

Or what, you claim promoting skating, puck handling, awareness, puck movement and mobility are boring qualities for an exciting hockey game? What are you, some conservative, secret Derian Hatcher fan? Your proclaiment that you're Swedish yourself means basically nothing in this case.

What is wrong by trying to be excellent in all aspects of the game? Alot, apparently. For the record, Cherry was sacked for a reason. He was still living in the 70s. Maybe that is your issue as well? Then just watch footage of the old games, because your era is never coming back.
 
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All countries except Canada go through transition periods. Maybe the OP forgot we just had double Calder finalists and won the U18 Gold, neither of which has happened before. The future looks good I'd say.
 
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PatrikBerglund said:
How many Swedes are top-5 in their position right now? Hedman is the only one, and he has not developed to take that last step into superstardom.
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What next step? he's arguably the worlds best defenseman. Only reason people don't call him a "superstar" is because he's not a flashy forward.
 
PatrikBerglund said:
Is this the worst Swedes have performed in the NHL for at least 2 decades?

At this point, no Swedes are among the top players, everyone is either under-performing, is overrated, over the hill or too young to make an impact.

Hedman, Karlsson, Backstrom, Lundqvist were once the elite of the elite, they have now vacated those spots - either temporarily or permanently.

How many Swedes are top-5 in their position right now? Hedman is the only one, and he has not developed to take that last step into superstardom.

There are no Lidstroms, Forsbergs, Sundins, Alfies or Zetterbergs.

Am I pessimistic or realistic?
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Don’t ever disrespect Backstrom.

Over the past eight seasons in the NHL he is fifth in overall points.

He’s pretty much a career PPG player with last year just being a few points off. He has 15p in 20 games this year, lots of time to get back on his horse and burn your village down.
 
nihlify said:
I think there's plenty good Swedes, we just lack the players at the very top right now, that happens sometimes, don't see it as a trend. Maybe EP will be one to take that step.
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Top? So Hedman, Karlsson, Lehner, Backstrom are not in the top? And future EP and Dahlin? Yeah just bottom players..
 
We all know that this thread is a bias because Sweden has never had this many NHL players (almost 100).

There you also have Vezina candidate from last year, Norris winners, Calder winner, Stanley Cup winners and 1st overall. Yeah Sweden is doing so bad as a small 10m people country which number one sport is not even ice hockey like in Canada and Finland...
 
MrThomas said:
Top? So Hedman, Karlsson, Lehner, Backstrom are not in the top? And future EP and Dahlin? Yeah just bottom players..
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Talk about a strawman. Not the very top does not equal bottom players lol... And I said *very* top. Of those you mention, maybe Hedman could be at the very top among D's. Karlsson certainly isn't right now. Lehner had one really good season, we'll see if he can stay there. Backstrom is good, but if you rank him among all players, he wouldn't be near the *very* top. And I wasn't talking about the future, Dahlin and EP could be those players, but they aren't at this very moment and we've seen weirder things happening than great young players turn out something else for a variety of reasons.

I'm not even sure why you are arguing, all I implied was that unlike certain periods where we had a bunch of players that could be considered best at their positions, that's not the case right this very moment, creating an appearance of Sweden being worse than before when that isn't really the case.
 
nihlify said:
Talk about a strawman. Not the very top does not equal bottom players lol... And I said *very* top. Of those you mention, maybe Hedman could be at the very top among D's. Karlsson certainly isn't right now. Lehner had one really good season, we'll see if he can stay there. Backstrom is good, but if you rank him among all players, he wouldn't be near the *very* top. And I wasn't talking about the future, Dahlin and EP could be those players, but they aren't at this very moment and we've seen weirder things happening than great young players turn out something else for a variety of reasons.

I'm not even sure why you are arguing, all I implied was that unlike certain periods where we had a bunch of players that could be considered best at their positions, that's not the case right this very moment, creating an appearance of Sweden being worse than before when that isn't really the case.
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Okey if you mean very very top is like top3 in the position then Sweden has maybe just one (Hedman). And Lehner last year. Thats still 1/3 of all positions. Remember the hockey in Sweden is better than ever before and thats a fact.
 
Chimp said:
Talk about cherrypicking. Belgium currently has a strong national team, which they didn't for a very long time. Sweden has more international medals than Belgium overall. Portugal can play football all year around and is primarily a football nation only. Still, Portugal has basically only been successful during this late era.

Speaking of handball, funny how we should just ignore Sweden was the powerhouse in handball for a very long time (a decade or so, 1990s to 2000s). Also the only nation that once challenged China in table tennis, having produced some legends in that sport. Not to mention the former legends in tennis, track and field, skiing, etc. Also having the best player in carambole history (Torbjörn Blomdahl), considered the most difficult form of snooker/ billiard).

You're talking bollocks, Sweden has punched way above their weight in many sports. That the country has a dip sports wise now is because of many reasons. One big reason is so many young Swedish athletes choose to play that ridiculous sport floorball, e-sports and the alarming reports that incredibly many children between 7-12 don't participate in sports, or quit. The decline in sports activities is as much as 37% and 233 of 290 municipalities have seen a decline.
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What you write is quite true. However, in two globally very big team sports, i.e. basketball and volleyball (right behind football in terms of competitive countries), Sweden has, for some strange reason, been quite pedestrian. Never understood why.

I also dislike floorball :clap:
 
RorschachWJK said:
What you write is quite true. However, in two globally very big team sports, i.e. basketball and volleyball (right behind football in terms of competitive countries), Sweden has, for some strange reason, been quite pedestrian. Never understood why.

I also dislike floorball :clap:
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There's a simple reason why Sweden has always been so pedestrian in basketball/ volleyball. Both sports are not popular in the country, at all. And they have never been popular at any time in Sweden's history. Although Sweden had a very good volleyball team at one time, but that's another outlier.
 
Nylander and Pettersson is PPG players going forward, so we got some players to follow us fans of Swedish NHLers. We have to live with the fact that lill-Nyllet and EP isnt physcial impressive like Sundin or Forsberg, but simply just skilled players.

Filip Forsberg is also very good, but he's often injured...
 
Forsberg has been insanely good from what ive seen. Just injured so yhe numbers arnt there as much.
 
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