PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Tommy Salo was nominated for the nominations for “The goalkeeper of the times”.
Then the Swedish goalkeeper hero chose to refuse to go to the gala.
Now he gets good support from the big favorite for the award, namely Henrik Lundqvist.
During Thursday evening, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association invites you to a big party when you celebrate 100 years at Avicii Arena. Sweden’s best hockey player of all time is to be nominated but is not even nominated Tommy Salo.
Salo was nobbed
Despite Olympic gold, World Cup gold and many seasons in the NHL, the 51-year-old was nominated for the category “Goalkeeper of all time”. Then Salo responded by canceling the entire gala and not coming to the hockey party in pure protest.
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Salo’s situation has provoked strong reactions around hockey Sweden, where many claim that it is a robbery that one of Swedish hockey’s best goalkeepers of all time is not nominated. Even NHL icon Henrik Lundqvist, who is the favorite to win the award for Swedish hockey’s best goaltender of all time, reacts strongly.
– Tommy was one of our best goalkeepers for a very long time. In the early teens, it was him who inspired me, I looked up to him a lot, says “Henke” on the red carpet to SportExpressen.
READ MORE: Tommy Söderström’s clear giant criticism – after Tommy Salo’s poke at the Time’s hockey gala: “Absolutely unbelievable!”
“Was surprised”
But Lundqvist also finds it difficult to say which of the other goalkeepers Salo should go ahead of, as the competition among Swedish goalkeepers over the years is fierce.
– It is incredibly difficult to measure across different generations. The five of us who are in the category, it could have been five others. It is difficult to meet over a long period of time and there are an incredible number of good ones to choose from. But for me, Tommy was cruel. He was great in the NHL and always delivered in the national team as well, he says in the interview.
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Also the icon Nicklas Lidström was surprised when he was told that Tommy Salo was not even nominated.
– I was surprised, I think he deserves to be one of five. With the career he had, what he won and performed both in the NHL but also for Swedish hockey. So I was a little surprised that he wasn’t nominated, says “Lidas” to the evening newspaper.
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