Red Wings prospect Theodor Niederbach won’t be playing in the Four Nations Cup with the Swedish World Junior Championship team due to an unfortunate hit suffered in yesterday’s Frolunda HC-Skelleftea AIK game…
Theodor Niederbach left today’s game early and did not return after these hard-to-watch scenes. pic.twitter.com/bOMbqyJ7ao
— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 6, 2021
And Niederbach spoke with Hockeysverige.se’s Leo Buttafuoco Ohlsson regarding the incident. What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:
Niederbach on the hit: “I remember everything”
Theodor Niederbach suffered a hit in the game against Skelleftea AIK yesterday, and he had to be carried from the ice while bleeding. This morning, the Junior Crowns announced that the 19-year-old will miss the last preparatory tournament before the World Junior Championship. Now he tells Hockeysverige.se about the hit, the injury and the offer.
“It is of course very boring and I had looked forward to taking a turn and playing with the national team,” he says.
During this season, Theodor Niederbach has broken into the SHL, and come to play in all of Frolunda’s games. Yesterday, he had an accident where he was hit and fell with his head hitting the ice. The blow was bad and the 19-year-old was helped off the ice after he tried to stand up on his own, and fell.
Despite the nasty pictures, Niederbach feels better than he himself had expected.
“It’s good considering the circumstances, and so on. I’m a little sore in my eyebrow area and have a slight headache, but otherwise it’s okay,” he says to Hockeysverige.se.
The hit made Niederbach lift his skates off the ice, and then it was on the way down that he suffered a blow to the head.
“I was checked and on the way down I hit my head and eyebrow on the ice. That’s why I started bleeding. I came up quite high and with speed going down, and I hit my head.”
Do you know if it’s a concussion?
“It’s probably a slight concussion at least. I remember it was our first shift, our second line and I remember everything. I remember that I fell when I tried to stand up, but considering that I’d become ‘groggy’ it’s assumed that it’s a slight concussion anyway. Since I didn’t find my balance immediately after, it’s probably assumed to be at least a concussion.”
“Of course it’s very boring”
In the morning, the Junior Crowns announced that Niederbach won’t be able to play during the Four Nations tournament in Angelholm this week. The Frolunda talent is instead replaced by Linus Sjodin. The decision to stay home, however, was easy to make.
“You shouldn’t take the chance and we aren’t ready to play and have a short break [in the SHL schedule]. Like I said, you shouldn’t take a chance and it will probably be better to take the week off, rest myself, body and head. That decision was made quite quickly, that I stay home from the tournament in Angelholm.”
How do you feel about the decision?
“It’s of course very boring and I had looked forward to taking a turn and playing for the National Team. It’s always fun and it’s a shame when things happen like this. It’s extremely boring, really.”
Have you spoken with [national team coach] Tomas Monten?
“I talked to him a bit before the tournament and we will see if I hear from him. Right now for me it will just be trying to show what I can do in Frolunda before the World Junior Championship, as [the Four Nations Cup] is the last tournament before the WJC.”
“Not very happy”
When Hockeysverige.se spoke with Niederbach last spring, the goal for this year’s season was to get into Frolunda’s lineup, which he has done. Despite this, he wants to show even more.
“I’m not really happy, but at the same time, I don’t think I should be too disappointed, either. I feel like I have more to give almost everywhere on the ice. I don’t feel that I’ve had a super start, but I feel that I have it in me and that I know what I can do. It’s just a matter of continuing to work on finding that little extra and it will come automatically,” he says, and continues:
“Now that I’m a regular player in Frolunda, and there have been some injuries as well. But now that I’ve succeeded in achieving exactly the goal that I wanted to, I always want more.”
What’s the next step, then?
“The next step will be the World Junior Championship, but I think with Frolunda, it’s becoming more important [to the team]. I not only want to be involved; I also want to be a crucial player and that’s the next step, automatically. If you want to move forward all the time, in my case it’s about becoming even more important to the team.”
