PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Tre Kronor missed the World Cup final and lost to the host nation, the Czech Republic.
After the game last Saturday, there was a lot of talk about the tackle on Isac Lundeström.
Now Sam Hallam gives his honest view on what sends a clear dick to Finland.
Sweden were overrun by a whopping 7-3 against the Czech Republic in Saturday’s semi-final and the gold dreams in this year’s hockey World Cup were thoroughly crushed. Instead, they had to settle for a bronze medal match against Canada on Sunday.
Sweden’s loss
There, Tre Kronor managed to gather energy again and defeat the Canadians to secure a WC bronze in 2024. But that loss against the Czech Republic will sting for a long time and after Saturday’s clash, a particular situation became highly debated.
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Czech hill Jan Rutta put an elbow to the head on Isaac Lundeström which the refereeing team did not act on at all. The replay images clearly showed that there was an active movement to the head and the Swede was first lying on the ice before he was forced to leave the game.
Hallam’s Glimmer
Only after the match was Rutta punished and thus missed the WC final, but that didn’t directly help Tre Kronor during the match itself. The Czech himself says that the intention was never to deliberately hurt his blue-yellow opponent.
– When I went into the 37 (Lundeström) I said I was sorry. You never want to see someone lying down on the ice. I asked if he was okay and he said he was. Hopefully that’s water under the bridge, says Rutta about the situation to Dagens Nyheter.
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Lundeström was still able to continue playing and his head got better.
– The head is calm. I felt a little in my neck and that’s why I got off. But the head feels good. I didn’t see him and the puck was in the other corner. I thought immediately on the ice that it was an elbow that came up, he says about the situation.
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Union captain Sam Hallam also doesn’t want to give in to criticism of the refereeing team even though they missed an obvious elbow tackle. Instead, he gives a clear nod to Finland, after their loud whining at the referees after the loss against Tre Kronor.
– I’m not going to stand here – like another team on Thursday – and say that’s where everything lands. That situation doesn’t affect what we do on the drawing afterwards, or that we drop into a one-on-three situation against us. I don’t want to go there and blame that situation. I don’t want to end up there, says Hallam to the daily newspaper.
– Sometimes the bounces and judgments go with it and other times they go against it. Somewhere we do everything to influence them in our favor and there I have failed. I have to take responsibility for that instead.
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