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jtam · 07-22-2020, 03:28 PM

Rikard Hammarberg – SWE – S54 IIHF WJC Retrospective - by J.Botchford Jr.
[2091 Words - WJC Bonus X2 - Ready for Grading]

It was not how Rikard wanted his year to end. Putting on the blue gold sweater of Team Sweden has always been a source of pride for the young Swede. After a tough loss to the Kraken in the Four Stars Cup, in which Rikard did not muster much offense to push the Outlaws to their 2nd Four Stars Cup in 3 years, Rikard wanted to channel his frustrations and play well for king and country at the World Juniors. Paired with his fellow teammates Emilia Bergman, Joorgustraad DuBolk and Taylor Johansson, they vowed to put the Four-Stars Cup loss behind them and focus on winning the WJC this season before Johansson moves on to the big leagues and leaves the WJC behind. One last hurrah as they would say.

While Hammarberg and Johansson have played with each other on the same team in the SMJHL for the past 3 seasons, they have never played on the same line. It was not until S53 World Juniors where they finally got to play on the same line, and they started building chemistry with each other in the playoffs / medal rounds, leading the Swedes in points as they fought their way to a silver medal. With another year under their belt and looking to wash the horrible taste of sea water after drowning to the Kraken in 6 games, Hammarberg and Johansson were tasked to help lead the Swedish attack for the S54 IIHF WJC. With Hammarberg playing center, and Johansson playing the wing, alongside Sven Svenson, they looked to recapture and build upon the chemistry they had last year. Hammarberg and Johansson exploded this year for Anaheim, leading the team in points as the 2nd and 3rd line centers, and WJC GM Roastpuff expected them to carry that strong play into the World Juniors.

It all started well enough. With a match against Team World as their first test, Hammarberg and Johansson assisted on the first goal of the tournament and of the game for Sweden with Svenson after some pinpoint passing between the two Outlaws. With both players looking to pass first before shooting, Svenson would be counted on to be the triggerman of the line. So far so good. Hammarberg would score midway through the second period to put Sweden up 3-1. Johansson would assist on Svenson’s second goal in the third period as well to put the Swedes up 4-2, while Hammarberg sets up Johansson for an empty netter to give the Swedes a 5-2 win in their first game of the tournament. Both Hammarberg and Johansson ended the game with 1 goal and 2 assists each, with Svenson scoring 2 goals, earning the 1st, 2nd and 3rd star of the game, respectively. It seemed that the chemistry is there once again, and the line looked destructive as the tournament started.

The second game against Team DACH, Hammarberg was held off the scoresheet along with his linemates, but the Swedes were able to gut out a 1-0 shutout win for Thor Odinson.

Watching the third game of the tournament against Team UCORCAL, the cracks in the Swedish team started to show as they lost the game 4-2. Hammarberg was once again kept off the scoresheet. Feeling the pressure of shouldering first line duties for the first time in his career, it was not a good look for Hammarberg. He will be counted on to produce come S55 in likely his last year as an Outlaw as a top 6 center, and his performance so far in the Four-Star Cup and the WJC leaves much to be desired. Hammarberg has been looking and pressing for increased responsibilities, but this performance so far has not shown that it is warranted. He would need a bounce back game against UCORCAL to build confidence for the rest of the WJC.

It didn’t happen. UCORCAL routed Sweden 4-0 the next game the Swedes played. Hammarberg once again was unable to muster offence as goaltender Jerry Huuveri was unable to keep the Swedes in contention in the game. While putting up a good number of shots, shot selection from Hammarberg remains suspect, as he put up 3 shots, all into the logo or pads of Samat Beibitzhanov. Time was ticking on using the World Juniors to prove to both Anaheim and Hamilton, the teams that own the rights to Hammarberg, that he is someone that can be relied upon in offensive capabilities. It seemed as if his season to remember, putting up 14 goals, and 30 assists in the regular season for the Outlaws was more of an outlier than a constant.

Sweden played well against Team World the first time around, but in this second game against Team World, it needed a shootout to be decided. With team Sweden’s offense sputtering the past 3 games, Hammarberg’s line needed a good game to take pressure off the rest of the line up. It has been too easy to play against Sweden, and the offence needed a spark. It didn’t come this game as the game was tied at 1-1 going into the shoot out, with Hammarberg credited with 1 assist on Sven Svenson’s goal early in the third period. While unable to generate much offense, Hammarberg produced a great defensive game with a blocked shot and good positioning, earning himself the first star of the game.

In the third game against UCORCAL, once again, Sweden was decimated as they suffered another lopsided defeat, this time 6-3. Hammarberg and Johansson were credited with a goal each, but the defense was exposed against a potent UCORCAL attack. Sweden left poor Thor Odinson out to dry, unable to contain Vitek Vitecek as he put on a 4 point performance with a hat trick. With 3 losses to UCORCAL, Sweden can only hope that they can avoid the juggernaut in the playoffs if they have any hope in advancing in the medal rounds.

Another game against UCORCAL, another lopsided loss once again. This time, the Swedes lost 5-2, bringing their record to 3 wins and 4 losses (all against UCORCAL). Once again, Hammarberg had very little impact in the game, despite logging almost 18 minutes in the game in 40 shifts combined on even strength, powerplay and short handed. In fact, Hammarberg has had zero impact during any powerplays that he has been on during the round robin portion of the WJC. His excellent play during the regular season for the Outlaws on the powerplay has not translated to his play for Team Sweden. Whether he is gripping his stick too tightly, something psychological holding him back, or perhaps playing in a system that he is not familiar with, Hammarberg has looked a shadow of his self this WJC, which reflect poorly on Sweden’s chances at medalling this WJC. With the graduation of many of the senior members of the S53 WJC squad, Hammarberg was looked upon to be an offensive rock for the team, and in the games so far, he has not delivered.

In their third game against Team World, the offence disappeared again, as they were shut out by Team World 3-0. Mustering only 21 shots, they were unable to solve Name Redacted. Hammarberg had a decent defensive game, but as the losses piled up, the confidence that Hammarberg often played with vanished, and he continued to be crushed by the expectations placed upon him. Sometimes a player just needs to get down to basics, and put pucks on net to get out of a funk, and Hammarberg’s coaches tried to get him to relax and simplify his game.

Against Team DACH, Hammarberg , while left off the scoresheet once again, showed signs of life as he peppered Team DACH goaltender Nicolae Antonescu with a team high 6 shots as he put pucks on net and pushed for more offense. Team Sweden was able to defeat Team DACH 2-0, pushing their record closer to .500. Thor Odinson was able to record the shut out with some solid defensive work by Team Sweden. While this was to be celebrated, against one of the weaker teams in the WJC, one would expect to put up some goals, especially with 6 power play opportunities. While Reid Sutherland was able to pot in a power play goal, the power play conversion rate for Team Sweden leaves much to be desired.

In the rematch against Team DACH, it was Team DACH that stood victorious in a 3-2 win. Team DACH jumped out to a 3 goal lead midway through the second period and Team Sweden was unable to finish the comeback. Hammarberg had relatively better game, assisting on the powerplay on Magnus Liljestrom’s powerplay goal in the third period. Once again, pouring 5 shots on net, Hammarberg was doing whatever he could to get his game back on track. With this loss, the best Team Sweden could muster was a .500 record for the round robin portion of the WJC.

With two games remaining in round robin play, Hammarberg did not generate any offense in the win against Team DACH (4-1) and was a black hole defensively in the final game against Team World (5-1 Loss). With stat line of 2 goals and 4 assists in 12 games, Hammarberg did not generate enough offense to warrant his spot in the top line. While coach Roastpuff tried tinkering with the line combinations ahead of the medal round, Roastpuff put his trust on Hammarberg to break open his slump and banked on his continued chemistry with Johansson, hoping for a repeat of last year’s WJC.

It was not to be. Pitted against a strong side in Team USA, Sweden was in tough to advance to the next round, and would need a complete team effort to put up a fight against the second seed in Group B. Early in the first period, Team Sweden was already down 2 goals, with James LeBlond, Hammarberg’s teammate from Anaheim scoring the opening goal, with Young Logo doubling Team USA’s lead (with assist to James LeBlond). Hammarberg got on the scoresheet midway through the first period on an assist to Taylor Johansson as the top line looked to start to mount a comeback. Magnus Liljestrom tied the game up at 2 on a blast from the point off of an excellent feed from Taylor Johansson. Sadly, Danny Marston took over, as he nets the next two goals one minute apart from feeds by Johnny Shuffleboard. Sven Gunnar made it a bit interesting scoring early in the third period, but it was not to be as Sammy Blaze put Team USA out of reach near the end of the third period. Team Sweden would falter in the quarter finals to Team USA, losing 5-3.

Staring blankly into the locker room, Rikard Hammarberg was made available to the press shortly after his team’s defeat to Team USA. Answering question after question from reporters, both from Sweden and from the SJHN, Hammarberg was unable to give an answer for his lacklustre play throughout the tournament. He shouldered the blame, stating that his offence was non-existent, that he didn’t do enough on the defensive side of the rink, and that he had failed the team after pushing for more responsibility. He vowed to review his play with his Swedish coaches, his personal coach, and his coaches with Anaheim and Hamilton on why his play sputtered into the post season in the SMJHL and into the WJC. Hammarberg stated that he will be back next year for S55 of the WJC if the coach will have him and promised that he will be a better player for next year.

In what could be his last year in the SMJHL, Rikard has all to play for next year. Granted, with an extremely stacked Hamilton squad the next few years, there is a chance that Rikard will be in the SMJHL after next season as there is a logjam of star players ahead of him in the Hamilton roster. Only time will tell where Hammarberg will end up, but regardless of where he ends up, Hammarberg will continue to push himself to make decisions hard for his coaches in the WJC, IIHF, Anaheim and Hamilton. To do that though, will require a big improvement on the lacklustre play from Hammarberg throughout the playoffs and the WJC.