Team Sweden's Olympic hockey coach is making some bewildering ice time choices when it comes to the minimal ice time for Filip Forsberg, writes Adam Proteau.
One of the most baffling developments in the men's Olympic hockey tournament is Team Sweden's usage of veteran Nashville Predators star Filip Forsberg.
Swedish coach Sam Hallam played Forsberg for only 9:31 in a 4-1 loss to their arch-rival, Team Finland. While that wasn't the sole reason Sweden lost, you have to wonder what exactly in the heck is going on with Hallam's ice time decisions.
Forsberg leads all Swedish NHL players in goals this season, with 24 in 57 games. He also leads them in shots, with 173. And in his 9:31 of ice time Friday, he had two shots on net.
But that shocking amount of ice time for Forsberg came after he played just 1:07 in Sweden's opening round-robin game against Italy on Wednesday.
Hallam said after the first game that he had 13th forward Forsberg and seventh defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the bench instead of being healthy scratches in case another player gets injured. Both players supported the decision as well. But Sweden needed goals, and they had Forsberg as the 13th forward. Either there's some mystery injury (which we don't believe is the case), or this strategy isn't clear as of yet.
Another curious Hallam decision is playing Jesper Bratt of the New Jersey Devils – a veteran playmaker who has 41 points in 57 NHL games this season – even less than Forsberg against Finland. Bratt was on the ice for 9:23 in the Finland game. Ekman-Larsson – who sat on the bench against Italy but did not play in that game – logged a team-low 7:36 on Friday.
It would've been one thing to sit veteran players if Sweden were up by two or three goals in Friday's game, but they lost to the Finns by three goals, two if we set aside the empty-netter. Surely their chances of scoring would've been better with Forsberg and Bratt on the ice more often.
The forwards who got the most ice time on Friday were Adrian Kempe (21:24), Joel Eriksson Ek (20:35), Lucas Raymond (20:21) and William Nylander (19:11). The rest of the ice time was fairly spread out among the rest of the forwards, with Elias Lindholm and Rickard Rakell getting over 13 minutes each, and Mika Zibanejad and Gabriel Landeskog getting over 14 minutes each.
Now, Zibanejad, Kempe, Raymond, Nylander and Eriksson Ek are next in the order for Sweden's highest goal-scorers in the NHL. And yes, Sweden's having no problem shooting the puck. They piled 60 on Italy and outshot Finland 35-24.
But we're talking about Filip Forsberg here. He has five 30-goal seasons, surpassed 40 goals twice and had a career-high 48 just two seasons ago. Last season, he scored 31 times for a struggling Nashville squad.
Sweden were even facing Finnish goaltender Juuse Saros, Forsberg's teammate. You'd think he would know where to shoot on his teammate.
Perhaps the coaching staff is more careful to play him, considering he averaged 15:01 of ice time at the 4 Nations Face-Off but had no points in three games.
But from our vantage point, Sweden's competitive strategies aren't especially apparent. And their Olympic roster choice of two-way depth forward Pontus Holmberg of the Tampa Bay Lightning is another questionable move.
Of course, all will be forgiven if the Swedes emerge as the gold-medal winners at these Games.
Still, through their first two games, Sweden have made some moves that make you go, 'hmmm.'
What is clear, however, is that Sweden must rout Slovakia on Saturday if they want the best chance possible of winning the group and getting a more favorable quarterfinal matchup.
If Finland beat Italy in regulation, a tiebreaking process is needed to determine who finishes first between Sweden, Finland and Slovakia, and what will likely matter the most is goal differential. Beating Slovakia by fewer than three goals likely won't be enough to secure the top spot; they need a blowout victory.
So if Team Sweden needs a goal or more against Slovakia, Forsberg is there to use. It's time to see what he can do with a larger role.
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