One of the favorites to medal in the men’s tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics has struggled so far in Milan, but they have time to turn things around.
Even with a number of injuries leading up to the Winter Games, Sweden had plenty of firepower to keep up with the best in the tournament. However, the team has been underwhelming thus far. After barely beating Italy in its first game, Sweden lost a rivalry battle to Finland, before beating Slovakia to salvage a third-place result in Group B.
The Swedes are now set to face Latvia in the opening round of the knockout stage on Tuesday, making it a tough road to the semifinals. If they were to beat the Latvians, they would be tasked with taking on the United States in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
On Tuesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Uffe Bodin joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to explain what would be a “successful” performance for the Swedes.
Carter Hutton: At this point, as a Swedish fan…what will Sweden have to do to walk away from this being like, ‘Hey this was a success.’ Or is it too late now?
Uffe Bodin: I think reaching the semifinals. At least, for me, ahead of the tournament, when you saw what group they played and the road ahead. I sort of ranked them third behind Canada and the U.S., but, obviously, they made it a lot more difficult right now. I think the hope right now is that they actually showed some really good signs in the third period against Slovakia. They played really well up until that penalty that [Lucas] Raymond took. I think if they can build on that, I think they actually have a chance of at least doing something positive. At this point, it doesn’t look very promising. I have to be honest and say that.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…
