Super swedes leading teams in quest for Cup

Swedish-born players playing major roles with contenders, writes Teresa M. Walker.

Filip Forsberg is having quite the spring for the Nashville Predators, setting franchise records with his eight goals and 15 points. He has tied the team mark with at least a point in seven straight games.

Pontus Aberg scored the gamewinning goal to give Nashville a 3-2 series lead in the Western Conference finals, while defenceman Mattias Ekholm has been smothering top lines all postseason. Viktor Arvidsson has 10 points, and his plus-13 rating ties him with Anaheim’s Rickard Rakell for second-best this post-season — behind Forsberg (plus-17).

All five of these players are Swedish. It has been a sweet post-season for men from a country whose players once were derided for being soft and not able to handle the rigours of the NHL. In all, general manager David Poile has six Swedes on Nashville’s playoff roster, and the Predators have reached the Stanley Cup final for the first time in their 19-year history.

“I must admit, we haven’t gone out of the way, necessarily, to get them to this point, but I’m thinking maybe we should,” Poile said. “They’ve certainly been key parts of our team.”

The Predators have lots of company in mining Sweden for talent. Defenceman Erik Karlsson was one of four Swedes on Ottawa’s roster in the Eastern Conference finals, while former Nashville forward Patric Hornqvist was one of three for the Pittsburgh Penguins. A check of NHL rosters shows 79 skaters and 10 goalies from Sweden played during the regular season, with 40 appearing in at least one playoff game.

Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said Sweden has become a hockey power for a small country. Teammates with Borje Salming and Inge Hammarstrom in 1976 in Toronto, Carlyle saw the abuse directed at both.

“That was a little bit more barbaric or archaic times for hockey,” Carlyle said. “But that’s how much the game has grown, and it has become a world-class game. And these players are world-class players and now you’re looking at their contribution and the numbers that are in the NHL, it’s all a tribute back to those two players.”

Because of the time zone difference, Rakell said, it was pretty tough to watch NHL games when he was growing up. The best chance to watch hockey stars came during national team tournaments in Europe. Rakell, now 24, started watching more of the NHL when he got to junior hockey, and he of course had a favourite player.

“I was growing up in the same hometown as Mats Sundin, and he was pretty big in that small town I grew up in,” Rakell said of the 18-year NHL centre who served as captain of the Maple Leafs. “So he was one of the guys I was looking up to and watching highlight videos.”

Pittsburgh forward Carl Hagelin said Thursday that it’s a very good time to be a Swedish hockey player, noting Sweden beat Canada 2-1 in a shootout Sunday night for the world hockey championship. Each NHL team seems to have two or three Swedes on the roster.

Yes, they do keep track of their countrymen during the regular season.

However, in the playoffs, all friendships are put aside.

“In the playoffs, you just play to win games,” Hagelin said.

Hagelin estimated a third of Sweden watched the world championship.

Thanks to the Internet and social media, it’s much easier to watch the NHL these days, too.

“There’s a lot of people watching us back home,” Aberg said.

Penguins forward Oskar Sundqvist agreed.

“I know a lot of my friends stay up basically the whole night and watch games. I think it’s growing every day in Sweden, and it’s just getting bigger and bigger.”

Swedish hockey has become so strong that Carlyle said NHL scouts are visiting the country regularly.

Making the jump to playing in North America has its challenges for young players. Pittsburgh drafted Sundqvist in 2012 when he was 19, and he stayed in Sweden for two full seasons before making his NHL debut last season. He spent much of this campaign at the Penguins’ AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton and is now 23.

“It’s not like you’ve got a onehour car drive and get home with mom and dad,” Sundqvist said. “I have a lot to thank Pittsburgh for letting me stay in Sweden one more year and prepare to get ready for everything that is over here.”

A Swedish teammate means being able to relax and talk with each other in the same language. It’s also a little easier to get tips on what to do and what to avoid doing to ensure a long stay in the NHL.

“Everybody wants to play here, and everybody wants to make the best out of it if you ever get the chance,” Rakell said.