WJC: 2016 — Sweden Roster Talk

ulvvf

Registered User
May 9, 2014
2,744
150
Another failure with Grönborg as the coach, and his coach descension and squad descension can be questioning. He never learns from previous mistakes.

He is the absolute worst U20 coach for sweden since at least they started to broadcast the event. But instead of getting fired he will get promoted, on what merits exactly?

They should do a big clean up among the coaches in the swedish fed.
 

X66

114-110
Aug 18, 2008
13,578
7,445
It's sad but Sweden's entire tournament IMHO rests on whether W.Nylander is loaned or not.

They still have a good team without him, but he'd definitely make them a great team.

This is what I meant.

Sweden could still string along wins without William, but when you need that game breaker, he unfortunately wasn't there.
 

ciderfylla

Registered User
Dec 28, 2015
93
38
I don't know if the result would've been any different with W. Nylander on the ice, but I do know that I'd want to see...

Such a shame that him and Aho couldn't play in the tournament. This year we don't have the depth to compete for gold without the best forward and best defenceman.
 

ulvvf

Registered User
May 9, 2014
2,744
150
This is what I meant.

Sweden could still string along wins without William, but when you need that game breaker, he unfortunately wasn't there.

We could have had Rasmus Andersson, Kylington, Kovacs.

Many lines didnt really click in this tournament, but as usually Grönborg do nothing.

I think Grönborg is a bigger reason then missing Nylander even if that hurts as well. But that line he would probabaly have played in, was in my mind at least by far our best line. Putting Nylander in different line could however have made this team a lot better, so we could have had 2 working lines.

The commentators and grönborgs love for grinders could hurt swedish hockey. That is not the way we should go.
 

Nithoniniel

Registered User
Sep 7, 2012
20,913
16,749
Skövde, Sweden
We could have had Rasmus Andersson, Kylington, Kovacs.

Many lines didnt really click in this tournament, but as usually Grönborg do nothing.

I think Grönborg is a bigger reason then missing Nylander even if that hurts as well. But that line he would probabaly have played in, was in my mind at least by far our best line. Putting Nylander in different line could however have made this team a lot better, so we could have had 2 working lines.

The commentators and grönborgs love for grinders could hurt swedish hockey. That is not the way we should go.

No kidding.

Seeing guys like Karlsson, who probably couldn't sustain offense if he was alone on the ice, out there time after time in the third was bad enough. It turned cringe-worthy when guys like Wikegård thinks he should have been out there more.
 

ciderfylla

Registered User
Dec 28, 2015
93
38
No kidding.

Seeing guys like Karlsson, who probably couldn't sustain offense if he was alone on the ice, out there time after time in the third was bad enough. It turned cringe-worthy when guys like Wikegård thinks he should have been out there more.

Agreed. When you have three shots on goal in a period, it's pretty ****ing evident that the main problem does not lie with a lack of grinders on the ice, but rather on a lack of creativity.
 

joe89

#5
Apr 30, 2009
20,313
174
Grönborg never had a plan B, and never will. Today was, short of one of the U18 final trashings probably his low point. Which doesn't say little, I've never seen a national team coach get away with so many complete meltdowns. And the guy just keeps climbing the ladder!

It was a sad game for Kempe, he was our best skater in the tournament and then just flat out sucked. I think he put too much pressure on himself. Timashov rather surprisingly came through instead when a game mattered the most. Söderström, Englund and Kempe were our best guys in the tournament overall though so they got that top3 right. That's not really what you want though, your goalie and defensive d to be the standouts. The lack of a true top line eventually came back to bite. We could still take bronze and make it a decent tournament, especially if Finland win the final we only lost out to the winner.
 

VictorLustig

Registered User
Feb 8, 2012
8,848
2,886
Grönborg never had a plan B, and never will. Today was, short of one of the U18 final trashings probably his low point. Which doesn't say little, I've never seen a national team coach get away with so many complete meltdowns.

It was a sad game for Kempe, he was our best skater in the tournament and then just flat out sucked. I think he put too much pressure on himself. Timashov rather surprisingly came through instead when a game mattered the most. Söderström, Englund and Kempe were our best guys in the tournament overall though so they got that top3 right. That's not really what you want though, your goalie and defensive d to be the standouts. The lack of a true top line eventually came back to bite.

Agree. I remember all those epic comebacks we had with Rönnberg & Mårts as coaches, you're just never going to see those with Grönborg as the head coach. Like you said, this is far from the first time this has happened. I have followed his teams from U18 to now and it amazes me how little he gets criticized for all these meltdowns. Losses will happen but the way his teams perform in these type of games just isn't acceptable, and it happens over and over again.

I don't really question the team selection though, losing our best puck mover and the best offensive player of the tournament hurt us in the end. Pettersson ended up playing big minutes today, he was likely the guy to get cut if Aho had remained healthy. Karlsson, who I was sceptic about, was fine for the most part but had a bad game today like every other skater except Timashov.
 
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Petri1981

Registered User
Dec 20, 2013
245
5
This ultra agressive forecheck with 2 guys chasing the finnish defenders for the puck is not modern hockey and swedish wingers didnt have enough fuel for the third period. Atleast if you use it, you should kill the game in 2 periods.

The swedish coach was definitely outcoached by the coach of finland
 

Eternalize

Registered User
Nov 8, 2013
340
51
Sweden
This is what I meant.

Sweden could still string along wins without William, but when you need that game breaker, he unfortunately wasn't there.

I'm sure you didn't even have one single thought about this before todays game. It's easy to say afterwards that you were right. They were still a great team without him. I agree that we could've had use for a guy like William today, but pretty much the whole team played like ****, and just weren't good enough.


Really made me furious watching this game. I felt like this team was "special", but i'm yet again disappointed, just like the semi-final and the bronze-game last year, even though the expectations were not as high on the team back then. Felt like Sweden had too much respect for Finland and their topline (they did a pretty good job at shutting that line down), they looked scared out there and were not able to play their own game. And you didn't see any fire whatsoever. Timashov only offensive player that showed up, even though he didn't have a perfect game by any means. Alex had his worst game in the tournament for sure, but you can't expect a 17 year old guy to be the difference maker. Have been really disappointed with Holmström and Lindblom in this tournament, expected way more offense coming from them.

Also can't help but put some blame on the ref as well in this game. 2 weak penalties ends up giving Finland the lead (the Kempe one was ****ing ridiculous). But in the end Finland played a better game overall for sure, they were able to put pressure on us, and we were not able to do the same thing with them, even in the 3rd period where we had only 3 shots (WTF?!!). They deserved the win.

Actually made me cry watching Söderström post-game. He played great just like always, and just like last year the team lets him down. I remember last year after the loss against Slovakia when he was talking about that he always seems to lose these games. You can tell that he's got a lot of passion and love for the game, he really wants to win at any price. And even though he played great, he still claims that he should've been better. Really broke my heart, especially since he will never play in a WJC final, and i thought he really deserved that. Meanwhile, some other players prefers to put the blame on the refs solely, and not themselves (Karlsson even claimed we were better, lol.) Söderström, only one that truly showed up today. I wish him all the best and i really hope he ends up being a really great goaltender in the NHL, he definitely deserves that. I really like him, both as a goalie and as a person.
 

Jim Morrison

Registered User
Aug 4, 2009
3,647
49
Posted this in the GDT but might as well post it here since it's more of a roster-discussion.

. Unfortunately there were too many player-omissions from the start and then we lost William Nylander on top of that. I really don't like Grönborg and his teams. To exclude players like Kovacs, Kylington, Andersson, Vejdemo and my personal favorites Olle Alsing and Jonathan Dahlén is a recipe for disaster in a single-elimination-tournament. No transition from the D and not enough firepower from the F.
 

The Winter Soldier

Registered User
Apr 4, 2011
70,803
21,006
This is what I meant.

Sweden could still string along wins without William, but when you need that game breaker, he unfortunately wasn't there.

William was pretty quiet in the semi game against Russia last year. Swedish fans wi recall this. He was quiet in the bronze medal game. I do agree he could have taken the checking focus away from Alex today. Might have made a difference in a 1 goal game. Puljujarvi+Laine shut down themselves or the Swedes did. But they could not keep Rantanen In check. Difference of tight game.
 

TheLeastOfTheBunch

Franchise Centre
Jun 28, 2007
38,541
305
Toronto
William was pretty quiet in the semi game against Russia last year. Swedish fans wi recall this. He was quiet in the bronze medal game. I do agree he could have taken the checking focus away from Alex today. Might have made a difference in a 1 goal game. Puljujarvi+Laine shut down themselves or the Swedes did. But they could not keep Rantanen In check. Difference of tight game.

A bit silly to bring up last year's tournament, in which Willy finished 1 point off of tournament scoring lead. Are you also going to hold it against Alex at next year's elimination games because of his quiet quarter-final and semi-final performances?

Anyways, it was a very good run for Sweden this year, but they certainly didn't play their best today (neither did Finland tbh)
 

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