I just don't buy the 'we weren't trying' mentality - if they were coasting, they would have scored 10 goals and then continued on a jolly!
Also, interestingly, their players come from no different stock than ours! Players signed straight from the AHL and ECHL. Youds, for example, wouldn't look out of place on a Cardiff, Nottingham, Sheffield Roster.
Reddox has 200ish AHL games (.65 points per game) and 100 NHL games (0.25) points a game, and is 31. He wouldn't even look that out of place on an EIHL roster!!
Shinnimin is the same 200+ AHL games, 12 NHL games....
And the list goes on. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of these guys on EIHL rosters.
The main difference is that hockey is massively popular in Sweden, more people attend, the teams can afford to pay their players wages a lot higher than the EIHL. But because they're on more money, people think they are far far superior - they're not!
The teams are younger, overall, and the coaching standard is higher, but the difference in standard of actual player ability is next to nothing!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk