Garpenlöv about an Olympics without NHL stars: "Sad for all of us"

It has been written and written about it, but on Wednesday it was clear that the Olympics will be much poorer on profiles.

There will be no NHL players in the games.

This means that the Swedish audience does not get the chance to see Swedish NHL stars like Mika Zibanejad, Victor Hedman and Nicklas Bäckström on the ice in the blue and yellow jersey.

And it is a disappointed league captain who tells about the initial reaction when he found out about the decision.

- It's sad, for us in the management team and all the players.

We had been looking forward to a tournament with the best players.

Right now it is a sad message, says Johan Garpenlöv to SVT Sport.

The national team management has a plan

Garpenlöv also says that there has been some preparedness for an Olympics without NHL players.

- We have worked with double tracks.

We have worked on an NHL track and a European track.

We have played several tournaments during the autumn and there have been basically two different teams, says the national team captain.

Garpenlöv, who is making his last big tournament as a coach for Tre Kronor, believes that the parallel tracks have to do with the national team management wanting to work to have the best possible team without NHL players.

- What is happening now is that we continue to work on the European track and put the NHL track aside.