The Swedish men's Olympic ice hockey team has suffered a rash of injuries thus far throughout the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, and it came close to having yet another injury scare after Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson crashed into New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist at Monday's practice.
The Swedes lost forward Johan Franzen of the Detroit Red Wings along with Henrik Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks prior to the tournament and then Red Wings and Sweden team captain Henrik Zetterberg after one game, and they almost added their world class goaltender and one of their top defenders to that dubious list on Monday.
According to NHL.com, Karlsson was attempting to catch forward Loui Eriksson (Boston Bruins) as he was breaking towards the net and the defenseman dove until his momentum carried him into Lundqvist, taking out the Sweden netminder.
"I toe-picked and dived without really thinking about what happened," Karlsson said via NHL.com. "But it should be fine. I think it looked a bit worse than it was. Luckily, I'm not that heavy. I told him I was sorry, about 500 times."
The Swedes were nervous as Lundqvist laid prone on the ice, but the team was able to laugh about it afterwards now that it was just a big scare. Both Lundqvist and Karlsson are expected to play in the next game.
"We can laugh about it because it wasn't too serious," Red Wings forward and former Ottawa teammate of Karlsson Daniel Alfredsson said per NHL.com. "But it gave everybody a big scare."
Lundqvist had a slow start to the season but had turned it around for the Rangers heading into the Olympic break and is 22-18-3 through 44 games with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. Karlsson has led the Senators with 55 points in 59 games off of 15 goals and 40 assists.
Sweden enters the knockout phase of the Olympics with the top seed after becoming the only team to win its three group matchups in regulation, but it didn't come without its fair share of problems.
Sweden almost blew a 4-0 lead over the Czech Republic before hanging on to a 4-2 victory, and its offense struggled when it defeated Switzerland 1-0 while notching the only goal that the Swiss have given up in the tournament.
Sweden won a nail-biter on Saturday when it topped Latvia in a game that was saved by Lundqvist stopping a breakaway late in the game with Sweden holding on to a 4-3 lead.
Sweden, the 2006 gold medal winner, is expected to be heavily favored when it takes on the winner of the Slovenia-Austria quarterfinal game, and while it has allowed lesser teams to comeback throughout the tournament thus far, Alfredsson realizes he doesn't have to remind everyone what's at stake.
"I don't think I need to tell them anything about that after the group games we've had," Alfredsson said. "We are going to be the favorites, no doubt about that, so it's just about balancing our energy the right way. We can't focus on what we have to lose, but on what we can win."
Luckily, they can focus on it with a healthy goaltender and top defenseman after a scare on Monday.
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