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Rakell Out of World Cup with Illness, Replaced by Patrik Berglund |
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Levine: Team Sweden World Cup
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Richard Rakell, who had been added to Sweden's roster as an injury replacement for Alexander Steen, now will join Steen on the sidelines. Rakell missed both of the pre-tourney games against Finland due to what NHL.com's Tom Gulitti reported is a stomach virus and did not travel with the team to the US. He was replaced today by Patrik Berglund of the Blues.
Sweden had several options to replace Rakell, similar to what existed when Steen was ruled out. The team could have easily chosen Gustav Nyqvist or Mika Zibanejad, each of whom were surprise omissions initially, rather than Berglund. But Sweden opted for what they perceived as a better two-way player rather than a stronger offensive one in Nyqvist or Zibanejad.
This past season, Berglund scored 10 goals and 15 points in 42 games, and added another four goals and nine points in 20 post-season games. Those regular season numbers pale in comparison to the two left over the team for him, even with Nyqvist having a down season compared to his breakout one in 2014-15. Zibanajed, like Berglund, is a center, who also wins draws, but he too is on the outside looking in like Nyqvist. With Steen and Henrik Zetterberg ruled out of the tournament, that's a healthy loss of potential offense, which might have been mitigated somewhat by either Nyqvist or Zibanajed rather than Berglund.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Sweden could have named a replacement up to 24 hours before the first tournament game, which meant the deadline would be Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET. But the team opted to name Berglund now and it's possible he plays Wednesday against Team Europe in Sweden's final pre-tournament contest. Having another scorer would provide some flexibility of another forward went down, but that burden to score of that happens will fall to Gabriel Landeskog or maybe Carl Hagelin
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