Canada isn’t the only place where hockey matters and it’s not the only place where fans have tried to hastily find a scapegoat for their team’s elimination from the IIHF World Junior Championship.
Sweden, which has a long history of dominating the tournament’s group stage before falling in the playoffs, won is first five games of the tournament in regulation time but lost in the semifinals to bitter rival Finland 4-3 in overtime, despite outshooting the Finns 46-35.
Goaltender Melker Thelin, a 19-year-old Utah HC draft pick, was heavily criticized for the loss. Critics pointed to him conceding a weak shot along the ice in regulation time that was ultimately called back due to offside, and then being beaten from a bad angle on the short side on Benjamin Rautianen’s power-play goal in overtime.
In five games in this year’s World Juniors, Thelin had a 4-1 record with a 2.91 goals-against average and .885 save percentage.
Ottawa Senators netminder Linus Ullmark appeared on Swedish television ahead of the bronze-medal game against Czechia in his home NHL rink and expressed his thoughts on the negative comments that Thelin has had to face in the aftermath of the loss to Finland.
“It’s deplorable in that way,” Ullmark said on the air, according to HockeyNews.se. “It’s one thing for us who play in the world’s best hockey league to have a few different things for us and are expected to do things in a special way.
“But these are just children,” Ullmark continued. “When you meet these guys, they’re not men with chest hair, they’re kids who go out and play hockey because it’s fun. To have to endure threats and such annoyances, it’s deplorable.”
Now a veteran goalie who has played almost 300 NHL games for the Senators, Boston Bruins and Buffalo Sabres, 31-year-old Ullmark offered some advice to others on dealing with negative comments from strangers online.
“For my part, I turn off all social media, where there is an opportunity to have a direct conversation,” he said. “Direct message or whatever it may be. When there is a comment that is a little (offensive), you simply have to block that person, so that they do not have the opportunity to continue.”
New York Islanders’ prospect Marcus Gidlöf played in goal for Sweden’s bronze-medal game, which Czechia won 3-2 in a shootout.