Team Sweden lost for the third straight game at the World Junior Summer Showcase, dropping a 4-1 decision to Team USA White on Tuesday.
None of the Red Wings’ prospects taking part in the game took part in the scoring, but Theodor Niederbach served as Sweden’s #1 center, looking a little more comfortable on the “small ice” as he continues to adjust to playing against bigger, stronger players than he ever faced in the Swedish J20 league with Frolunda;
William Wallinder played in his second game for Sweden, and displayed superb three-direction skating, good gap control, excellent reads and a steady demeanor;
And Team USA White’s Shai Buium looked a little more like the player the Red Wings drafted 33rd overall on Saturday, playing steadier, stronger hockey and displaying much more maneuverability on his skates as he worked in on the Americans’ second defensive pair.
After the game, the trio spoke with myself and the Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi:
- Buium was asked about several of his teammates before getting into a discussion of his more-regular playing time on Team USA White, and he discussed the seriousness with which the Americans take this long week of first impressions made toward making the World Junior team:
2. Niederbach made some intriguing comments regarding the faster pace and different angles he was facing playing on an 85-foot-wide rink, and he discussed both the Wings’ stable of Swedish prospects and his own attempts to graduate to Frolunda’s men’s league team after a dominant season at the Under-20 level:
3. Wallinder was particularly vocal today, discussing his own adjustment to the smaller rink, his status as now finding himself among a stable of Wings Swedes, the ways in which Niklas Kronwall has helped him find his way as a professional athlete and person in Sweden, and his hopes for the upcoming season with Rogle, Moritz Seider’s team:
