The Tre Krunor team started the World Cup with a victory over modest Austria. But the coaching staff has few reasons to be happy. The fact is that when forming the composition of the steering team of the Swedish team, he made a bet on players from the NHL, who were supposed to be released after the first round of the playoffs. The coach even freed up a whole link for them.

However, the overseas series dragged on, and the players who have already been released are not eager to join the team at the tournament in Finland.

An unsuccessful bid by Garpenlev can cost the team very dearly. Swedish hockey players simply do not need their own team.

Swedes are not patriots?

In the match with Austria, the Swedish team played in three offensive threes and managed to win in economy mode. Johan Garpenlev did not hide the fact that he vacated a place in the application for hockey players from the NHL and those players who were cut in the final series of the Swedish Hockey League Luleå – Ferjestad – the confrontation ended on May 12 with the victory of the latter.

It seems that such an approach should not be surprising. The representation of the Swedes in the NHL is one of the most extensive among all European teams. That is why the Scandinavians are traditionally waiting for landings from across the ocean to compete at the world championship.

But this time the situation with the arrival of a batch of NHL players was not easy. The first stage of the playoffs, unexpectedly for many experts, turned into a real massacre. Five episodes dragged on until the seventh match, so it’s not worth waiting for the release of the Swedish players before next week.

In addition, Garpenlev’s headquarters began to receive strange refusals from players who had already finished their club seasons. For example, the center of “Washington” Niklas Backstrom did not want to come to the tournament in Finland, having already answered the request of the coaches.

Niklas Backstrom / Photo: © Jonathan Daniel / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

But if a long flight after an offensive defeat in the series can become a reason for refusing to play for the national team, then the decisions of Linus Johansson and Jacob de la Rose cause serious concern among the coaches. Both players recently became Swedish champions with Ferjestad and have now declined an invitation to the national team due to injuries.

On top of that, Linus Omark, who played in the finals for Lulea, also refused to play for the national team, and Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin and center forward Joel Eriksson Ek, who dropped out of the Stanley Cup on May 14, have not yet given an answer.

Obviously, the Swedes have some problems with patriotism. This is especially noticeable against the backdrop of the Finnish team. Mikael Granlund, who promptly joined the national team after the departure of Nashville, for example, gave Suomi a victory over Latvia.

Key games ahead

Already on Sunday, the Swedes will play with the Czech Republic. And the problem with the lack of players will not go anywhere:

– Playing in three lines is an option against the Czech Republic, but we would prefer to play with a wider squad, – the Yellow-Blues coach complains.

Yukhan Garpenlev / Photo: © Tomi Hänninen / Newspix24 / Global Look Press

However, the problem found in the Scandinavian team may be much more serious. Garpenlev’s team still has to play with the USA and the hosts of the tournament in the group stage. By this point, the current players may be seriously tired, and players from across the ocean, at best, will only begin to arrive on the team. And then, if they do not refuse.

At the same time, the coach continues to bend his line and instruct that his tactics are correct:

– It’s a difficult puzzle. We really need more players, but we also can’t make decisions that we can later regret, Garpenlev notes.

Apparently, the Swedish coach continues to believe in his compatriots, despite a series of refusals from important players. A risky decision that could cost the team the fight for gold medals.