Riga / Stockholm. Joseph Boumediene failed to bring NHL stars to the World Cup.
SVT expert Mikael Renberg thinks so.
– I don’t feel like there were players who refused it because they didn’t want to play in the World Cup, Boumediene replied.
Tre Kronor entered the season with a new management staff and Joseph Boumediene, 45, is the assistant general manager for the national team. It is based in North America with the mission of tracking NHL and AHL Swedes who may be related to the WC.
After Latvia knocked out Petri Kronor in the quarter-finals, SVT expert Mikael Renberg, 51, leveled barbs at the Swedish team’s building.
– said Renberg In the times when Sweden won World Cup gold, there were always some real great players.
Boumediene’s failure
The former NHL star believes that the skills of SHL players are overrated in international hockey.
– Honestly, we have Lucas Raymond and Rasmus Sundin, who unfortunately got injured. Other than these two, there are no real big players. There, Joseph Boumediene failed to bring in enough good NHL players.
When Sportbladet asked Boumediene to respond to the criticism, he responded:
– It depends on who wants here. I don’t know. He can easily tell who it is.
How do you feel about yourself? Did you get enough good players here?
– We are satisfied with the team. We played well enough to win. Elite sports are brutal. When you apply for this job, you know it is a match that determines whether or not you will get approved. We didn’t win today, that’s how it is.
The stars were missing
Elias Peterson, William Nylander, and Rasmus Dahlin are some of the NHL stars who have been stated to be interested in playing the World Cup, but haven’t shown up.
Can you do anything more than that?
No, I wouldn’t say we could have done it. We’ve had discussions with a lot of players. You could not come for various reasons, as we have said many times. There were injuries, there were family matters. There were other reasons. I don’t feel like there are players who turned it down because they didn’t want to play in the World Cup.
Many in the huts find it hard to understand why the big stars don’t come out. Do you think this is a problem?
Problems and troubles. Like I said, we were happy with the team we had here. We thought we had a good enough team to fight for the medals. We play a good enough game to win today, but we don’t. Elite sports are brutal.
Hallam’s response: “Weak claim.”
Union captain Sam Hallam also disagrees that Tre Kronor will lack the last bit of skill and distinction needed to advance.
– I think that’s a rather weak claim. This is what sport looks like sometimes, we think we are the best team and we have quality players. You can score in many different ways, you can get it in the back and in, today a game like that when we don’t get it, says Sam Hallam.
Anders Lundberg has been the national team manager of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association since 2022. He says he feels “completely empty and very disappointed”.
– I think everyone who loves Swedish ice hockey hopes for more, says Lundberg.
What should be done now? Tre Kronor hasn’t been better than losing in the quarterfinals since 2018.
Now is not the time to draw hasty conclusions. Now we are very disappointed and need to sleep over this issue.
Do you feel like a failure?
– Of course, the exit from the quarter-finals is a great disappointment.
