Filip Forsberg leads all Swedish-born NHL players with 24 goals this season. However, during Sweden’s 5-2 victory over Italy in their Olympic opener, he played a very short amount of time. This raised eyebrows not for the result, but for the deployment.
The Nashville Predators winger barely saw the ice, while Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson watched the entire game from the bench without a single shift. Swedish reporters had plenty of questions for head coach Sam Hallam at practice ahead of their late week rivalry game against Finland.
The Olympic Format Problem
“I was joking around that I had the best seat in the house,” Ekman-Larsson said with a laugh, adding that the media was making it a bigger deal than it was.
The issue stems from roster rules. In the NHL, teams dress 18 skaters and two goalies. The 4 Nations Face-Off last season used the same format. At the Olympics, teams can dress 20 skaters and two goalies, creating difficult decisions for coaches and awkward situations for elite players. Hallam defended his approach as he acknowledged the uncomfortable reality of having more talent than ice time available.
“I think it’s just the format,” he said. “We’re used to dressing six defensemen, 12 forwards. You never have this question in the NHL. We didn’t have it in the 4 Nations. So, it’s the format that offers us the possibility to have an extra ‘D,’ an extra forward on the bench, and if we wouldn’t dress seven and 13 and get an early injury, I would look pretty stupid.”
“You have to be really good to make it into 25, and we can’t play 25,” Hallam said. “That’s the honest truth about it. You’re here to play for our country and it’s a tournament. We’re going to need each and every one of them. That’s the way it is, but everybody can’t play.”