Lindholm stands in the mixed zone, where the media meets the players, with a bronze medal around his neck.
It was not what he dreamed of when he accepted the World Championship game.
But when the disappointment and frustration over the World Championship semifinal against the USA was something that happened yesterday, a bronze medal was the best that was left to achieve.
Lindholm accounted for two assists in the bronze match, the 6-2 victory over Denmark, and landed on 14 points, eight goals and six assists.
With that, he became the Swedish scoring king and the tournament's top goal-scorer before the final.
Second straight World Championship bronze and a third place in Four Nations in February. Lindholm was not there last year, but in this year's tournaments.
"Tough team to beat"
The Boston star feels, despite the third places, that Tre Kronor can go all the way in the Olympic Games tournament in Milan.
Looking at Four Nations where everyone has their best, it was a slow start against Canada, but we played them out after 20 minutes and would have won, we beat the USA. When everyone has their best days, we are a tough team to beat, says Lindholm about the star tournament where Sweden fell after overtime against Canada and Finland and won over the USA.
National team captain Sam Hallam says:
We have taken a medal in two straight championships. It's a good direction. Now we want to take off from these matches to the evening match and take the gold medals.
"Self-confidence and cockiness"
What's missing for the final step?
A bit of collective self-confidence, to believe in ourselves. It probably applies to everyone around us as well. We are probably good at finding things that are not good enough. Talking to people around us, Swedish hockey is very strong. To get that into the locker room. More self-confidence and cockiness, says Hallam.
Elias Lindholm is both pleased and displeased with his World Championship.
About his own performance, he says:
We may have been thought of as a slightly defensive line, but I think we have produced well. I got to move up a bit and got more offensive zone starts. It proves that there is still an upside. It was fun playing with "Mickis" (Mikael Backlund), says Lindholm, who had a slightly tough season in Boston.
On the other hand:
But I would have rather scored zero points and taken gold.
