Petr Popovich was fired and lost his mother within three weeks.
It has been a difficult time for Swedish ice hockey players, who are struggling with unemployment.
– The mother just vomited, was fed by drip and had difficulty drinking water, the 55-year-old tells Läns Tidning in Westmanland.
On 28 December, Rijkaard Grönborg, Petr Popović and Johan Andersson were sacked from coaching in Zurich.
According to the club’s management, cooperation with sports director Sven Lowenberger was unsuccessful.
In the long, emotional interview with VLT, Peter Popovic says the sporting director thought about the players who would be put together and ice times as much as how many players the seventh quarterback would play.
“Be there every day.”
Back home in Sweden, mother Milica was treated in hospital after developing a tumor in her stomach.
When he was with her during the national team break in November, she was not herself, her face sunken and she had almost no legs left.
– Maybe I should have been fired. Because I got home. My mother lived only three weeks after my return to Västerås. Things went really fast in the end. I’ve been there every day. “Sometimes I would just sit there and hold her hand,” Peter Popovich says.
“The grass can be cut…”
When a new ice hockey season begins, he’s looking for a new job.
In hockey, he is keen to try something new as a club manager, scout or sporting director.
– It doesn’t have to be hockey related. It can be anything, overtime, part-time or part-time. I can mow the lawn, drive a delivery truck, and I’m not a picky eater. I mean, I’m a really simple and humble guy from Arboga, so no problem, says Peter Popović.
As a defender, Petr Popovich has had a long career mainly in the Elite Series, NHL and Tre Kronor.
As a coach, he has won three WC golds with Tre Kronor and assignments in Vasteras, Södertälje, Farestad and Zurich.
