MILAN \u2014 Four days into the men\u2019s Olympic tournament and Sweden still hasn\u2019t quite found the kind of form that fellow powerhouses Canada and the U.S. have shown out of the gates.<\/p>\n
Sweden\u2019s star-studded NHL roster finally showed some teeth Saturday, potentially a promising step forward even if the path ahead got thornier for them.<\/p>\n
As in, having to play an extra game in the Qualification Playoffs.<\/p>\n
A 5-3 win over pesky Slovakia felt almost like a loss thanks to a complicated tiebreaker scenario that saw the Swedes having to pull goalie Jacob Markstrom in the final seconds in order to try and regain the three-goal lead they needed to win Group B.<\/p>\n
Confused? You\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s an odd game that way,\u2019\u2019 Sweden captain Gabriel Landeskog said postgame. \u201cYou feel like you\u2019re playing really well and you win the game by two but at the same time you lose the game? So it\u2019s weird. But it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Technically, they didn\u2019t lose the game, but they lost the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve been in a game like that. It\u2019s weird,\u2019\u2019 said Sweden defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.<\/p>\n
So mixed feelings as far as playing better than 24 hours earlier in the loss to rival Finland, but leaving the arena without the first-place seeding that was on the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s a tough ending obviously,\u2019\u2019 said alternate captain Victor Hedman. \u201cComing all the way back and getting that lead and getting that power play and hitting the inside post and they capitalize. Tough pill to swallow. But we will regroup. We\u2019ll be ready for our next challenge.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
While the players knew about the tiebreaker scenario, it was still odd to be part of pulling Jacob Markstrom when up by two goals. It\u2019s counter-intuitive on so many levels yet was necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really tough obviously coming into the game knowing you have to win by a certain amount of goals,\u2019\u2019 said winger Adrian Kempe, who scored on the power play. \u201cAnd then you\u2019re up, all of a sudden you\u2019re down but you\u2019re still up in the game. A lot of things going on. That\u2019s just the way it is. We have to look at it in a positive way: We played a way better game today than we did yesterday. Something to build on.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Slovakia, Finland and Sweden all finished with 2-1-0 records but ranked 1-2-3 in that order in Group B based on the tiebreaking formula. Which means a do-or-die Qualification Playoff game for the Swedes on Tuesday to gain entry to Wednesday\u2019s quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to win out here,\u201d Hedman said. \u201cNow the fun starts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Germany found itself in the same position back at the 2010 Olympics, needing a Qualifying Playoff win over Switzerland to reach the quarterfinals and well, we know how the rest went.<\/p>\n
So perhaps it\u2019s not the worst thing in the end to play the extra game if it means giving Sweden another chance to bring their game to a higher level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean hockey is not a straightforward sport, it never has been,\u2019\u2019 Hedman said. \u201cWe\u2019ll take whatever card we\u2019re dealt going into the next game. You got to embrace the opportunity to play in the Olympics.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The Swedes launched 51 shots on goal Saturday and definitely presented a more cohesive offensive attack. There were positive signs all over the place, including Elias Pettersson announcing himself in the tournament with a pair of goals, Lucas Raymond had his best game and scored, the lineup changes and forward lines tweaks by head coach Sam Hallam seem to produce the desired results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked the way we played today,\u2019\u2019 said Hallam. \u201cPretty disappointed both with the result and our performance yesterday. The guys showed up in a much better way today. I think we grew.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Marcus Johansson and Hampus Lindholm played their first games, Markstom replaced Filip Gustavsson in goal, Jesper Bratt was pushed down to the 13th forward spot, Filip Forsberg was elevated in the lineup, as well as the captain, Landeskog, who went from fourth line to second line. Credit to Hallam for not being stubborn and instead embracing change after the loss to Finland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, any time you lose a game and any time you\u2019re not happy with the way you\u2019re playing, you\u2019re going to make tweaks,\u2019\u2019 said Landeskog. \u201cThat\u2019s the way it is. I thought all the lines played hard today, the guys who stepped in did a great job. Marky played well in net, tough bounce at the end.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Rasmus Andersson and Elias Lindholm came out of the lineup as part of all those changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt that Marcus Johansson could come in and give us some speed and some skate,\u2019\u2019 said Hallam. \u201cAnd I like the balance we had today over our line. Now we have two or three days here coming up. Let\u2019s see how the guys who didn\u2019t dress today, how they feel. We\u2019ll see next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the odd ending to the game and the realization that they have to play an extra game, Sweden can take solace in what might be a positive step in their overall game that gets them to the promised land.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a lot of really good improvements today,\u2019\u2019 said Landeskog. \u201cAll the areas where we wanted to be better, I thought we were today. Defensively I thought we kept them to the outside, we were quick to contact in the D zone, offensively I think we did a better job hanging onto pucks. Obviously they\u2019re a heavy team down low but I thought we did a good job spreading them out and creating some scoring chances. Even at 5-2, we had chances for 6-2 and 7-2 \u2026 the margins for error are slim in tournaments like this.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Added Hedman: \u201cThat\u2019s a good sign for our group. \u2026 Everyone contributed. Marky played great. A lot to build on.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Markstrom might stay in net after a mostly solid performance. The New Jersey Devils goalie saw a team that was night and day from Friday\u2019s loss to Finland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of stuff that\u2019s that we really improved on,\u2019\u2019 said Markstrom. \u201cI think looking at video of yesterday\u2019s game and today game, I think it\u2019s a different picture. And I thought the guys battled hard. They blocked shots. They made fast plays, they skated, they hit, our power play was really good. We did all the right things to score five goals and you win the hockey game, but it feels like a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
One area the Swedes have to clean up is discipline. They took 14 minutes in penalties Saturday, Rasmus Dahlin\u2019s first-period penalty on Milos Kelemen was emblematic of that issue on this day. That\u2019s the kind of dumb penalty you can\u2019t take on this Olympic stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking too many penalties out there and that cost us,\u2019\u2019 said Hallam.<\/p>\n
Echoed Hedman:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to stay out of the box, we took way too many penalties. If we stay out of the box and play five-on-five, we\u2019re a tough team to beat.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Is Sweden there yet? Not quite. And now there\u2019s no more practice games. It\u2019s win or go home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Four days into the men\u2019s Olympic tournament and Sweden still hasn\u2019t quite found the kind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,54125,4,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-458121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116070557398816759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}