World Cup: Swedish head coach and “disaster”

Head coach of the Swedish national hockey team Johan Garpenlöv has brought the cat to the table. He doesn’t digest the fact that in the early series of the World Cup, the team can have so many matches for consecutive days.

Of Sweden’s seven early series matches, six have been sprinkled into doubles for consecutive days. The situation was the same in the UK this year.

There is talk in disc slang back-to-backmatches. On Sunday, Garpenlöv opened more on the subject.

– That’s unfair! Unfair to everyone who gets that program. This is a really short tournament. If you have to play two games in two days three times, that’s too much. Two match days for consecutive days is just fine, but in this way training and many things suffer.

– I think the rules should be changed so that the team cannot play three times back-to-backmatches. That doesn’t add value to the tournament, Garpenlöv said.

The initial set is completed in 12 days. With 16 countries involved, Garpenlöv’s proposal would therefore require more game days. Another option would be to play multiple matches on the same day. Since it wouldn’t be very profitable on weekdays, the IIHF hardly gives it the green light.

Special statistics

Garpenlöv had wondered about this before because this year’s tournament is the second in the pipeline when Sweden gets three doubles in their program.

Looking at the opening series of the World Cup over the last 10 years, it is clear that Sweden is certainly not the only one to have received a poor lottery in successive games.

According to the statistics, the countries that were listed in the top eight in the world in those competitions were included. The most notable was the Swiss tube. In as many as four consecutive World Championships, Käkikelloma won the first series of three doubles games, in 2015–2018.

The worst tube in Slovakia was three races long. In the last 10 years, Finland has had three back-to-backia in the initial series twice, in 2014 and 2018.

At the same time, Canada, the United States and the Czech Republic have only had to play two matches in two days in two days in the first round.

Injury concerns

Captain of Tre Kronor Oliver Ekman Larsson did not play against Norway on Sunday. Garpenlöv admitted it was worried. Representing the Vancouver Canucks, the kit is a top player at the World Cup level.

Ekman Larsson got the puck on his ankle a week ago against the Czech Republic. Reporters asked if the absence was due to ankle pain.

– It could be. With a 99.9 percent probability, he will not play against Latvia on Tuesday. Let’s see what the situation looks like before the quarterfinals starting on Thursday, Garpenlöv replied.