A comment from a reader, Temujin, alerted us to this comment by Daniel Sedin, speaking with the Associated Press (via TSN):

“We always play to win games,” forward Daniel Sedin said. “If you play for Sweden, you want to win games. It doesn’t matter what you’re playing for.”

Sedin then muttered an expletive, and walked away from reporters.

Did Sweden throw the game? Not likely, in our opinion. But it doesn’t matter anyway, since it’s unlikely anyone could ever prove such a thing. But really, the better story is the very fact that the Swedish coach even implied he wanted to lose the game against Slovakia, so his team could face Switzerland in the quarter finals rather than the Czechs or Canada.

Nevermind the fact that the Swiss beat BOTH the Czechs and Canada, coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson’s implication itself is simply insulting and demeaning to another Olympic team. Plenty of people may agree with the Swedish coach, but no one else was dumb enough to open their mouths.

Usually we’re vocal fans of Sweden, given all those Swedish-Vancouverite Canuck-a-Swedes we cheer for loudly in the NHL. Particularly the Sedin twins whom we loudly support - and frequently without any company until this season, we might add.

But on Wednesday, for once we’re just going to have to root for Switzerland. (And we’re willing to let bygones be bygones. Besides, our Swiss exchange student needs a little love for her country!)

Sincerely, we wish the best of luck to Mattias, Henrik and Daniel - not to mention Markus Naslund, who hasn’t been able to play for Sweden in this Olympics. We’ll go back to singing their praises after the Olympics.

But for right now, your coach has really pissed us off.

Go Canada! Go Switzerland!

Postscript:

We’ll go back to semi-hating Switzerland’s David Abeischer when he rejoins the evil Colorado Avalanche after this is over. Not that we totally hate Abeischer anyway. I mean, the Avs own GM Pierre Lacroix does seem to hate him a bit, so we actually kind of like the guy, to be honest.

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tags: nhl, hockey, olympics, turin, torino, sweden, switzerland, canada, daniel+sedin, henrik+sedin, mattias+ohlund, colorado+avalanche