FiLe
Mr. Know-It-Nothing
- Oct 9, 2009
- 6,996
- 1,367
This is the very discussion I was having (or tried to have) in the aftermath of the last WHC.
Simply put: Sweden ofc has better talent overall, with far more depth in the NHL and such. But if you eliminate that North American factor and force them to operate on their European-based pool only, they're in trouble. Finland trumps them in depth what comes to players based in Europe. Same with the Russians and the Czechs, who also are heavily leaning to the KHL these days.
And that is the reason Sweden appears as bit of an underachiever in EHT.
And for clarity: NO ONE in here is dissing Sweden's impressiveness in hockey overall, they got some splendid talent in the NHL which is still the best league in the world. This discussion is simply about why they seem to be in constant trouble on EHT, and that is because almost all of their quality is overseas.
Simply put: Sweden ofc has better talent overall, with far more depth in the NHL and such. But if you eliminate that North American factor and force them to operate on their European-based pool only, they're in trouble. Finland trumps them in depth what comes to players based in Europe. Same with the Russians and the Czechs, who also are heavily leaning to the KHL these days.
And that is the reason Sweden appears as bit of an underachiever in EHT.
So you were missing ten of your best Euros? Finland could easily ice another full squad of players who are of the same caliber than the ones they had in this one. That is depth, not having half of your best ones gone and be crippled.There were over 10 players that was asked to participate who chose not to (Danielsson, Thörnberg, Mårtensson, Lundqvist etc). Depth is not a problem for us, trust me.
And for clarity: NO ONE in here is dissing Sweden's impressiveness in hockey overall, they got some splendid talent in the NHL which is still the best league in the world. This discussion is simply about why they seem to be in constant trouble on EHT, and that is because almost all of their quality is overseas.
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