Oliver Ekman-Larsson was on the Swedish national teams that won back-to-back World Championship titles in the last two years.
photo: Andre Ringuette / HHOF-IIHF Images
Sweden enters this year’s IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship as two-time defending champion, and the team’s first-time captain is a player who was prominent in each of the first two titles – defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
The Arizona Coyotes captain doesn’t think, however, that puts any additional pressure on the team.
“There’s always a lot of pressure on us,” he reasoned. “We always come in with a good team with high expectations and it’s no different this year.”
At age 27, this is already Ekman-Larsson’s sixth World Championship. While he loves representing his country as most players do, the reason he is so often available this time of year is because his NHL team isn’t playing. In fact, he’s now played nine seasons for the Coyotes and only made the playoffs once – back in 2012, his second season in the league.
Ekman-Larsson feels things are going in the right direction in Arizona, however, for the team and for himself individually.
“I think I had one of my best seasons over there so far,” he said of his 2018/19 campaign. “I thought I was more consistent and didn’t have the bad games that happened sometimes in years before. And also, the team was better this year too – we just missed the playoffs by three points. We took a couple steps in the right direction as a team and as an organization.”
At the halfway point of this past season, the Coyotes were 17-21-3 and near the basement of the NHL’s Western Conference. However, they turned it on in the second half and were even in a playoff position for a while in March before faltering late.
“We had some injuries and it was impressive how we stayed in the playoff race right till the end,” the captain said. “It wasn’t quite good enough, but we’ve gotta keep getting better.”
While the Coyotes haven’t had a lot of success during Ekman-Larsson’s career, the Karlskrona native now feels comfortable in the desert and plans to stay a while. Last summer, he signed an eight-year contract extension that runs through 2027.
“The weather is great,” he reasoned. “The first couple years there were a bit different, going to the rink in shorts and flip-flops, which is a bit different from Sweden. But now I’m used to it.
“It’s nice to go on road trips. You go to Edmonton and Calgary and get the snow and cold, which is nice to get once in a while, but just for a couple days, then it’s back to Arizona,” he smiled.
The Coyotes’ season ended on 6 April, and Ekman-Larsson didn’t play another game until his Swedish team hosted Russia on 1 May in Stockholm and won 6-4, then went to Brno, Czech Republic for a pair of games against the host Czechs and Finland the weekend before the World Championship.
“It was definitely nice to get a bit of rest, but now it’s nice to get back into some game action. I felt pretty good the first game, actually. Better than I did today,” he said following a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic on Saturday.
“They’re a good team. We always have good games against the Czechs. They have a lot of good players. We knew they were going to come at us pretty hard on home ice, but we didn’t handle it very well, but when we play them again next Friday we’ll have to be ready.”
Indeed, after beating Finland 2-1 in their last pre-tournament game, the Swedes begin their title defence in Bratislava – a place where the Czechs will again have almost a home-ice advantage.
“Once the World Championship starts, every game is important. There are no easy games in the tournament and you have to be on your toes right away.”
Speaking of his Swedish team, Ekman-Larsson said: “We pretty much have a new team, but we all pretty well know each other.
“Adam Larsson, who I played with tonight, was on the team last year, but we’ve got a lot of young guys who haven’t played in the World Championship before, so it’s going to be important to get them going and feeling comfortable. But as far as talent, we have a pretty solid team and it’s just a matter of getting the chemistry going.”
Finally, as someone with a fair bit of experience in both international hockey and the NHL, Ekman-Larsson commented on the rumours that have gone on for the past year involving Swedish national team coach Rikard Gronborg coaching in the NHL.
“It would be great to see,” he said. “I think he would do a good job there. He’s getting better every year I’ve had the chance to be around him and I think he’d be a really good NHL coach. This is his last year here with the national team, so I guess we’ll see after the tournament.”
In the meantime Gronborg signed a contract to coach the ZSC Lions Zurich in Switzerland’s National League for the upcoming season.
The Arizona Coyotes captain doesn’t think, however, that puts any additional pressure on the team.
“There’s always a lot of pressure on us,” he reasoned. “We always come in with a good team with high expectations and it’s no different this year.”
At age 27, this is already Ekman-Larsson’s sixth World Championship. While he loves representing his country as most players do, the reason he is so often available this time of year is because his NHL team isn’t playing. In fact, he’s now played nine seasons for the Coyotes and only made the playoffs once – back in 2012, his second season in the league.
Ekman-Larsson feels things are going in the right direction in Arizona, however, for the team and for himself individually.
“I think I had one of my best seasons over there so far,” he said of his 2018/19 campaign. “I thought I was more consistent and didn’t have the bad games that happened sometimes in years before. And also, the team was better this year too – we just missed the playoffs by three points. We took a couple steps in the right direction as a team and as an organization.”
At the halfway point of this past season, the Coyotes were 17-21-3 and near the basement of the NHL’s Western Conference. However, they turned it on in the second half and were even in a playoff position for a while in March before faltering late.
“We had some injuries and it was impressive how we stayed in the playoff race right till the end,” the captain said. “It wasn’t quite good enough, but we’ve gotta keep getting better.”
While the Coyotes haven’t had a lot of success during Ekman-Larsson’s career, the Karlskrona native now feels comfortable in the desert and plans to stay a while. Last summer, he signed an eight-year contract extension that runs through 2027.
“The weather is great,” he reasoned. “The first couple years there were a bit different, going to the rink in shorts and flip-flops, which is a bit different from Sweden. But now I’m used to it.
“It’s nice to go on road trips. You go to Edmonton and Calgary and get the snow and cold, which is nice to get once in a while, but just for a couple days, then it’s back to Arizona,” he smiled.
The Coyotes’ season ended on 6 April, and Ekman-Larsson didn’t play another game until his Swedish team hosted Russia on 1 May in Stockholm and won 6-4, then went to Brno, Czech Republic for a pair of games against the host Czechs and Finland the weekend before the World Championship.
“It was definitely nice to get a bit of rest, but now it’s nice to get back into some game action. I felt pretty good the first game, actually. Better than I did today,” he said following a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic on Saturday.
“They’re a good team. We always have good games against the Czechs. They have a lot of good players. We knew they were going to come at us pretty hard on home ice, but we didn’t handle it very well, but when we play them again next Friday we’ll have to be ready.”
Indeed, after beating Finland 2-1 in their last pre-tournament game, the Swedes begin their title defence in Bratislava – a place where the Czechs will again have almost a home-ice advantage.
“Once the World Championship starts, every game is important. There are no easy games in the tournament and you have to be on your toes right away.”
Speaking of his Swedish team, Ekman-Larsson said: “We pretty much have a new team, but we all pretty well know each other.
“Adam Larsson, who I played with tonight, was on the team last year, but we’ve got a lot of young guys who haven’t played in the World Championship before, so it’s going to be important to get them going and feeling comfortable. But as far as talent, we have a pretty solid team and it’s just a matter of getting the chemistry going.”
Finally, as someone with a fair bit of experience in both international hockey and the NHL, Ekman-Larsson commented on the rumours that have gone on for the past year involving Swedish national team coach Rikard Gronborg coaching in the NHL.
“It would be great to see,” he said. “I think he would do a good job there. He’s getting better every year I’ve had the chance to be around him and I think he’d be a really good NHL coach. This is his last year here with the national team, so I guess we’ll see after the tournament.”
In the meantime Gronborg signed a contract to coach the ZSC Lions Zurich in Switzerland’s National League for the upcoming season.