Magnus Hävelid is the new captain of the national team to the junior crowns.
He certainly could have had a better start.
No thanks Simon Edvinson, it can be the difference between last place or not.
Magnus Hävelid started his team’s presentation by saying that Karl Lindbom is the first-choice goalkeeper.
It’s no surprise that the Djurgården goalkeeper has been successful, and even more surprisingly Hävelid said so with 19 days to go until the premiere.
I don’t remember seeing it in all the years I’ve covered pre-JVM press conferences.
Then he came to the slopes and his name echoed blankly after Simon Edvinson’s. When it came time to ask questions, the simple and hard answer was that Edvinsson rejected JVM games.
There are probably a number of explanations for this, but the bottom line is that Sweden will fight for the medals in Halifax without the biggest star in the group and that, of course, is sad.
It’s okay that the former Frölundabacken, for various reasons, didn’t have a major tournament in August, but here he was definitely a star.
This summer, most people probably counted Edvinson, who was expected to take a spot on the Detroit Red Wings. This has not been the case so far, and so hope has been raised that there will be a third JVM Championship for the senior defender who was already recruited at No. 6 last summer. Not least because the championship was decided in Canada without a time difference and on a small rink.
It’s very likely that Detroit intends to catch up with Edvinsson in the NHL next month, and then, of course, the JVM will be very early in the process.
Finally it’s time for a regular tournament again
Otherwise, everyone was there. At least the ones Magnus Hävelid wanted to include. It was thanks to two other AHL working Swedes, Isak Rosén and Fabian Lyssell. It will be interesting to see if they have made more strides since August when they topped the strikers’ indoor scoring league.
I understand if Oskar Asplund and Albert Sjöberg were disappointed. After their respective fall in Allsvenskan, I had both of them in my squad.
However, I love that Hävelid dared to bet on Skellefteå’s only 17-year-old full-back, Axel Sandin Pellikka. The attacking game he showed last month should do well on the international scene too.
After three tournaments that have been disrupted and destroyed in various ways by the Coronavirus, it is finally time for a normal tournament again.
It started with the crowd-free tournament in 2021, followed by the failed tournament in 2022 which was canceled and later moved and set for August when most Swedes are busy mowing lawns, boat trips, barbecues and other things you do in August.
But now everything will be as usual again: JVM hockey during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
In Russia’s absence, the medal battle is now about four teams instead of five: Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden,
Although it is important to pay attention to the group opponents, the Czechs, who shone in the quarter-finals against the United States in August. The Czech Republic also has a total of 19 players from this squad who are of participating age now.
Otherwise, the junior crowns received perfect draws with two previously easy matches against Austria and Germany followed by a sharp finish against the Czech Republic and Canada before the serious playoffs began.
The meeting with the Czech Republic will be key. Finishing three crowns after the Czech Republic (and Canada), the USA or Finland are likely to be waiting already in the quarterfinals.
Only one final in eight years
After gold in 2012 and silver in the next two tournaments, the result of the junior crowns is silver (2018) in eight years. During this period, for example, Finland won three gold medals.
Thomas Montaigne competed in 2018 and also won two bronze medals from his five tournaments as captain of the national team.
But when it came to noble medals, Sweden was far from being a major force in the context of the JVM.
“Any number of wins” in the group stage can’t change that.
In keeping with more and more first rounds in the NHL draft, the Junior Crowns have been doing worse and worse as a team. It was endlessly debated why junior crowns weren’t “best when it mattered most.”
In my world, it’s not about the lack of “competition” in Swedish youth hockey. Without more that interaction and submission to the team game was not good enough. Individual performance and development was more important than doing what it takes to be the best as a team.
I take on the team that won the gold medal in 2012. It was far from the most talented team on paper, but there was an acceptance of the role, mental toughness and the will to do it together.
This also took many players from this team all the way to long careers in the NHL, even if they were far from the stars with their respective NHL clubs.
If there’s new gold, youngsters’ crowns should find their way there.
Now it’s Magnus Hävelid’s turn to try to change that.