Written by Joe Tetreault | 15 February 2010

Sweden is no stranger to the World Hockey stage. Participants since 1920, they're among the most successful nations in the annual World Championships. But when it came to the Olympic games, Sweden remained shut out until sixteen years ago. 1994's games in Lillehammer, Norway marked Sweden's first gold. They struck the alchemist's prize again in 2006. But the defending champs aren't the lock one might expect. With Russia's waves of goal scoring forwards and Canada's insanely deep team, the Swedes find themselves sneaking into Vancouver just under the radar. They've got the field right where they want them.

Group C is a minefield. The Swedes top the pack with their fellow power on the Scandinavian peninsula, Finland, not far behind. The wily Belorussian team lays in wait to zap any opponent mistaking their place on the schedule for a win in a walk. Then there are the Germans, quick on the ice, young and hungry.

Sweden has the pedigree and the recent success, but will those attributes combined with their obvious skill be enough to get them back to the top of the podium? Click read more to continue reading about the road ahead for the Swedish squad in the Olympic men's ice hockey tournament set to begin tomorrow. The Swedes feature a balanced attack, with a roster chock full of current and former NHLers. Only goalie Stefan Liv has yet to skate for an NHL club at one point in his career. The majority of Team Sweden though is quite familiar to NHL watchers, especially their elder skatesmen, like Peter Forsberg, Daniel Alfredsson, and Nicklas Lidstrom.

Lidstrom is the oldest player for the Swedish team - he'll turn forty towards the end of April. He also potted the gold medal winning goal in the 2006 games, beating the Finns' Antero Niittymaki less than a minute into the third period of a game knotted at 2-2. Lidstrom gets to wear the C on his jersey and he'll be quarterbacking the Swedish corps of defensemen.

It's a good group with a pair of Atlanta Thrashers, Johnny Oduya (previously with the Devils and included as part of the package Atlanta received for Ilya Kovalchuk) and Tobias Engstrom, Lidstrom's fellow Red Wing, Niklas Kronwall, Douglas Murray of the Sharks, the Lightning's Mattias Ohlund, Henrik Tallinder of the Sabres and former Islander, Magnus Johansson, who is captain of his hometown Linkopings HC squad in Sweden. The squad is filled with leaders, besides Johansson and Lidstrom, Murray, Tallinder and Ohlund have all served as captains or alternates as amateurs or professionally. They remain the backbone of the team, capable of contributing to both the scoresheet, in particular Oduya, and the woes of the training staff of their opponents.

Up front, the team relies less on Alfredsson and Forsberg then on their younger skaters like host city Vancouver's Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik, as well as Henrik Zetterberg of the Red Wings and the Capitals' Nicklas Backstrom. The dynamism of that foursome, especially the Sedins will give Sweden ample scoring chances.

In net, the Swedes will likely turn to the Rangers Henrik Lundqvist who kept goal for them four years ago. He's having another great season for the Rangers, looking to run his unprecedented streak of seasons with 30+ wins to begin a career to five. He'll need just five more wins in net for New York to capture that distinction. His experience between the pipes in an international competition is a valuable commodity. He's the all-time leader in games played by a goalie for the Swedish National team. The Leafs Jonas Gustavsson gives them a "monstrous" backup netminder, in case Lundqvist gets hurt or falters.

For Sweden's head coach, Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, the Olympics and May's World Championships mark a bit of a farewell tour. He'll step down at the end of May and likely return to coaching at the club level. Gustafsson took over the team five years ago and helmed them to their 2006 Golds at both the Olympics and the World Championships, an unprecedented feat, he'd love to repeat, just to show the rest of the world how it's done.

The Swedes overall depth (second only to Canada) makes them a threat on offense and defense, and their trio of goalies have experience and skill. Sweden might not be the team on everyone's lips like Russia or Canada, but they belong in the conversation, even if they have to muscle their way back to the top of the podium to get there.

Joe Tetreault blogs about sports, culture, business/technology and current events at TetreaultVision in addition to being the Editor for Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.

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