Coach Rickard Gronborg says Zetterberg didn’t feel 100%, so Sweden opted to pick another player with worldwide experience.
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Zetterberg would join Niklas Kronwall, who has concerns over his recurrently injured knees, in passing up the world tournament in Canada, which is encouraged by the National Hockey League and the owners, but stirs less enthusiasm among the players than the Olympics. Zetterberg had previously been named captain of the team for the tournament. The World Cup will take place September 17 to October 1 in Toronto.
Zetterberg has been a staple on Swedish national teams for more than a decade and was a member of Sweden’s 2006 gold medal-winning effort at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and silver medal-winning team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Backlund has represented Sweden at three World Championship and two World Junior Championships. Sep. Since the event is an NHL-sanctioned operation, the rosters are full of top-tier talent, but it’s not important enough for players to value their participation over potentially missing some time in the National Hockey League regular season. In 2015-16, Backlund set career highs in games played (82), goals (21), assists (26) and points (47).
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Team Sweden was dealt some tough news this week when Henrik Zetterberg elected to skip the World Cup of Hockey due to injury.
