I saw Alex Edler grinning from ear to ear last night in the Mixed Zone after Sweden beat Team Canada 2-1 in a shootout to claim the 2017 gold medal at the World Championship.
The game was unbelievably even from start to finish. There wasn't a lot of physical play, but both teams got their chances. Sweden's goal came off a flukey bounce after an uncharacteristic wobble by the Canadians on the power play. Ryan O'Reilly and Colton Parayko both failed to get the puck out of the defensive zone before Victor Hedman's shot through traffic beat a screened Calvin Pickard.
A lot of people seemed to have originally thought that Marcus Kruger tipped the puck in front of Pickard, but it went straight in.
"I got a lucky bounce and the puck had eyes" Hedman told me. "It was good."
In my third year of World Championship coverage, this is the first year I've even had to deal with overtime, let alone a shootout. Canada caught me by surprise by blowing a 2-0 lead to set up overtime against the Swiss—then losing. On Sunday, I wasn't especially surprised to see that such a tight game would need more time to decide a winner—or even that it went to a shootout.
As for the outcome—can you imagine what the headlines would have been if Colorado Avalanche backup Cal Pickard had outduelled King Henrik Lundqvist in the shootout?
Pickard was outstanding in the game—and throughout the tournament. I'd like to see him take a step toward becoming a starter like Martin Jones and Cam Talbot have done over the last couple of years, but he's not in a real strong bargaining position. He has one year left on a contract that pays him just $1 million a season but when that ends, he'll still be a restricted free agent, so Colorado will hold his rights.
Will Pickard's world championship play tempt the Avalanche to protect him over Semyon Varlamov in the expansion draft? Varlamov has two years left on his deal at $5.9 million a season before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
If Joe Sakic thinks 25-year-old Pickard might be Colorado's Goalie of the Future, he might take that chance.
Now I wish I'd asked Sakic about this when I talked to him yesterday!
I spoke to him and Teemu Selanne when the pair were among eight inductees into the IIHF Hall of Fame on Sunday. My story:
When we spoke after the ceremony, I suspect Sakic was feeling sentimental about his own unbelievable career with Team Canada when he said "I hope the Canadians win," before quickly adding "It’s a great hockey game and I hope all our players come out of there healthy."
In addition to Pickard, Sakic's Colorado Avalanche was the source of three other Canadian players—Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, who was named to the tournament all-star team after finishing in a tie for second place in scoring with 15 points, and Tyson Barrie, who was injured early in the preliminary round in an off-ice incident. On other teams, the Avs' Gabriel Landeskog and Carl Soderberg earned gold with Sweden, Mikko Rantanen (who is HUGE for a 20-year-old) fell just short of medalling with Finland and youngster J.T. Compher got knocked out in the quarterfinal as part of Team USA.
Now, back to Edler, who was happier and chattier than we tend to see him in Vancouver after he won his gold medal.
"It's kind of hard to describe," said Edler about his feelings right after the game ended. "It goes to a shootout like that, everything happens so fast and all of a sudden you're world champions. I think it hasn't really gotten to me yet.
"It's an unbelievable feeling."
Edler looked like everything had fully sunk in by the time he joined his teammates at the gold-medal celebration in Stockholm on Monday.
I asked Edler if it felt different for him, not playing with the Sedins for a change.
"You know what, it's always great to be with Swedes," he answered. "They're the best people. It's so much fun to come here to the national team and it doesn't matter if you don't know each other from before. You come together so quick, that's the greatest thing about the Swedish National Team."
I also asked him how it felt to play in the gold-medal game and enjoy the celebration this time around. Last time Sweden won gold, in 2013, Edler played in just two games after the Canucks got knocked out of the playoffs before being suspended for the last two games of the tournament—and the first two games of the 2014 Olympics—after taking out Eric Staal of Canada with a knee-on-knee hit in the quarterfinal.
Sweden won that 2013 quarterfinal against Canada in a shootout, by a score of 3-2.
Edler did receive his gold medal for his contribution to that team, but he smiled even more broadly as he answered "It was nice to actually play in the final this time. It's been a long tournament but it's been so much fun, yeah."
The Alex Edler I've seen in Cologne over the last two days does seem different from the low-profile character that patrols the blue line in Vancouver. Known as being shy with the press, he was happy to stop and chat in English on both Saturday and Sunday and was pretty forthright with his answers.
Earlier in the tournament, he was also frank with Brian Hedger, who wrote the piece that continues to run on the
front page of Canucks.com.
Yesterday, I admitted that this recent turn of events makes me think that maybe there's a tiny chance that Edler would be willing to leave Vancouver despite his no-trade clause. I'll increase the alert a bit today. Not sure he'll sign off instantly but I feel like it was a big step for him to join the Swedish team this year even though the Sedins declined.
Alex Edler is now a player worth watching this summer.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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