Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson did not take part in Team Sweden’s 4-2 win over Germany on Monday at the World Junior Championship, and reports about Edvinsson’s status circulated throughout the TSN broadcast and on Twitter, etc.
Everything from Edvinsson being “banged up” from blocking shots to having food poisoning to being so injured that he wouldn’t be available until Saturday’s WJC Final.
So let’s hit upon several of these topics, via HockeySverige.se and HockeyNews.se.
HockeySvergie.se’s editor, Rasmus Kagstrom, reported the following, which is, of course, roughly translated from Swedish:
Monten has few words about Edvinsson’s absence: ‘He was not available to play’
Simon Edvinsson did not play in the Junior Krona’s final group stage game against Germany.
Team captain and coach Tomas Monten did not want to talk about the reason for the Swedish star defender’s absence.
“He couldn’t play today,” says Monten to HockeySverige.se.
Edmonton: When the Junior Crowns released their lineup for tonight’s game with Germany, one name was conspicuous by its absence: Simon Edvinsson.
The key Swedish defenseman played in the opening three games of the WJC group stage, and as recently as yesterday, played just over 23 minutes in the loss against the U.S.A.
Before the game, Tomas Monten talked about having a healthy team without injuries for the final group stage game.
So why was Edvinsson missing? Monten is brief when he’s asked the question.
“He was ‘not fit to play’ today,” says Monten.
TSN’s speculation: Food posioning
When the Junior crowns released their lineup for tonight’s meeting with Germany, one name was conspicuous by its absence: Simon Edvinsson .
Edvinsson took a hit in the WJC pre-tournament game against Canada, and has been on the ice practicing over the course of the tournament. In TSN’s broadcast of the game, expert Bob McKenzie speculated that Edvinsson’s absence from the Germany game was either due to an injury, or that he has food poisoning.
Monten didn’t want to comment on the speculation.
“No, he just wasn’t able to play today.”
Sweden won tonight’s game against Germany 4-2, and will thus play in the quarter-finals against Latvia during the night on Thursday, Swedish time.
Are you worried about his status for upcoming games?
“No, I am not.”
Monten also had to speak with HockeyNews.se, which posted both an article and a video interview with Monten, and Monten was a little more forthcoming with Henrik Sjoberg.
I want to note that I looked up some of the words in this article, including the title, in which Monten calls Edvinsson “risig,” or “scrubby!”:
Edvinsson was missing against Germany: “He was scrubby”
Edmonton. The Junior Crowns earned second place in their group at the WJC–without defensive star Simon Edvinsson, who didn’t play against Germany.
“He was shaky and not up to playing,” says Tomas Monten to HockeyNews.se.
After four games, national team captain Tomas Monten can sum up the group stage for the Junior Crowns:
“I think that ‘special teams’ feels good, even if we didn’t get that many power plays today. Penalty-killing was really good, and I think we have several lines going, and it feels like we can use the whole team and that is a positive. The minus is that we’re not a team that will score a lot of goals, but it will be tight, and we have to find our way in,” says the team captain to HockeyNews.se.
Now the team faces Latvia in the quarter-finals–a tricky task against a team that has never before made it this far at the World Junior Championship.
“It’s a really tough nut to crack. We meet them very rarely, and haven’t played against them in this tournament, and they are on a high and we have to play better than we did today if we are to win,” says Monten.
Sweden came to the game without defensive star Simon Edvinsson, who also left the game in the exhibition game against Canada before the tournament.
“He was groggy and not fit to play,” says Monten after the victory against the Germans, and the national team captain adds:
“I think we are doing what we should. We’ve played six games since we got here (two exhibition games) and we’ve learned from each game, and hopefully we can be on top and have our best three games here now.”
