{"id":458536,"date":"2026-02-15T04:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/458536\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T04:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:20:18","slug":"sweden-mens-hockey-staring-down-cold-olympics-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/458536\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden men’s hockey staring down cold Olympics cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Team Sweden won two of its three preliminary games yet couldn\u2019t take a victory lap after either of them.<\/p>\n

First was a win over Italy<\/a>, in which a roster without any NHL players pushed the star-studded Swedes to a 2-2 tie after two periods. <\/p>\n

Then came Saturday, in which Dalibor Dvorsky\u2019s power-play goal with 39 seconds left meant that, despite a 5-3 win for Sweden, Slovakia ended up atop Group B<\/a> after Finland secured a blowout win over Italy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did all the right things to score five goals, and you win the hockey game,\u201d said Jacob Markstrom, the Devils\u2019 netminder who started and made 29 saves in his first game of the Olympics. \u201cBut it feels like a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweden did not even finish in second place in the group, with that honor \u2014 and the potential for a bye into the quarterfinals \u2014 going to the Finns, who rebounded well after a shock loss to Slovakia opened their Games.<\/p>\n

Coach Sam Hallam reminded reporters that, in the 2010 Games, eventual gold medalist Canada had to play the extra game after losing to Team USA in the prelims. <\/p>\n

\"GoalieGoalie Jacob Markstrom of Sweden makes a save during the Men\u2019s Preliminary Group B match between Sweden and Slovakia during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games on Feb. 14, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, Saturday was his club\u2019s best game of three so far.<\/p>\n

Hallam made a series of changes to his lineup, most notably moving Gabriel Landeskog up to the second line with Lucas Raymond and Mika Zibanejad while inserting Marcus Johansson into the lineup for the first time, and onto the third line with Filip Forsberg and Elias Pettersson.<\/p>\n

Crucially, Sweden got some results from its horses. <\/p>\n

Raymond scored a beautiful solo goal, while Pettersson \u2014 who had yet to record a point either in these Olympics or in last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off \u2014 scored twice. <\/p>\n

2026 WINTER OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

Slovakia, the surprise team of these games, pushed the Swedes hard but never led.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a lot of really good improvements today,\u201d Landeskog said. \u201cAll the areas where we want to be better, I thought we were today. Defensively, I thought we kept them to the outside. We were quick to contact in the neutral zone. Offensively, I thought we did a better job hanging onto pucks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elias Pettersson of Sweden celebrates his goal with teammate Lucas Raymond during the Men\u2019s Preliminary Group B match between Sweden and Slovakia during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games on Feb. 14, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

And yet, Sweden still feels a distant third \u2014 at best \u2014 to the U.S. and Canada at these games. <\/p>\n

They still have a goaltender dilemma; Hallam wouldn\u2019t commit to Markstrom as his starter, and Filip Gustavsson was shaky in both his starts. <\/p>\n

They did not put together a single convincing win during a group stage in which, despite playing archrivals Finland, they were expected to easily come out on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we go to the quarters or not, doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d Victor Hedman said. \u201cWe gotta win out [from] here. Now, the fun starts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Team Sweden won two of its three preliminary games yet couldn\u2019t take a victory lap after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,2602,43,1718,2787,31286],"class_list":{"0":"post-458536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-olympics","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-sweden","13":"tag-winter-olympics","14":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116072732343064407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458536","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=458536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}