Auston Matthews And USA Eliminate Maple Leafs Teammates William Nylander and Oliver Ekman-Larsson To Advance To 2026 Olympics Semifinals
While Auston Matthews and Team USA march toward the podium, Maple Leafs teammates William Nylander and Oliver Ekman-Larsson face a bittersweet exit as Sweden's Olympic journey comes to an unexpected end.
Video Transcript
It's tough because, I mean, with this matchup, it's like a team that could win the gold medal was going home in the quarterfinal.
That was just the reality of it, and, you know, in hindsight, you think about, you know, the seeding and how Slovakia kind of upset, you know, expectations for a lot of teams, where it's like if things had broken a little bit different in the group stage, Sweden would've been playing Team USA in the quarterfinal.
But that's how it ended up.
You gotta play the team in front of you, and I guess, you know, I- they had a chance to win, right?
That's all you can really ask for.
I'm, I'm a l- I, I shouldn't say disappointed, but it's like I, I thought that they could've had more execution.
I also wonder how much better they would've been with a big, young, talented center named Leo Carlsson, had he not been injured before this tournament.
Or the, if Victor Hedman hadn't been hurt, in the pre-game warmup, 'cause he wasn't- he, he was sitting on the bench.
Yeah.
or the fact that Jesper Bratt, who was the 13th forward, wasn't used until the third period.
I mean, a lot of people had problems with the, with the coaching of- ... Alain, I believe it was, um- Yep ... i- yeah, in the, in this tournament, and some of the dis- lineup decisions that he made.
you know, I mean, I In one of the broadcasts, I think it was Brian Boucher or, or Eddie Olczyk was saying, "Well, if Hedman got hurt in the pre-game warmup, then why didn't you put Rasmus Andersson in as the seventh defenseman?"
And the speculation was maybe Andersson is hurt as well.
So it's like if, if it's injuries, I mean, we don't, we won't know that until he, if he's already spoken, then maybe it's already been reported.
But this was probably the third most talented team in this tournament, next to Canada and the United States.
A lot of people picked them as a dark horse, but if you look at their, their group, they didn't play as well as Fin- as Finland.
They didn't play as well as Slovakia.
They were inconsistent throughout, and I mean, that's I mean, that, that's surprising because, you know, they were so talented.
