The chants never stopped as the sea of red in the Swiss Life Arena in Zurich paid tribute to their heroes - Switzerland's dream of a first World Championship gold medal in ice hockey is alive.
For Tre Kronor, it ended in the quarterfinals after a 1-3 loss. For Sam Hallam, it was approaching midnight when he finished his last interviews as Swedish national team coach.
He paid tribute to everyone he has worked with at the association and all the players he has coached during his four national team seasons.
"It's been fantastic fun. It's an incredible honor to represent Sweden and Tre Kronor," says Hallam, who will now coach Swiss club Genève-Servette.
“Received a lot of criticism”
Sweden has not won World Championship gold since 2018. Hallam's medal tally stopped at two World Champuonship bronzes - despite star-studded teams in both tournaments.
"I think that in both the Prague World Championships (2024) and the Stockholm World Championships (2025) we had teams and a feeling that it was the gold that mattered. I think the Olympics are incredibly tight. We went into overtime against a USA team that later went on to win."
In this winter's Olympic tournament in Milan - the first since 2014 to feature NHL stars - Tre Kronor advanced to the quarterfinals against the USA. A poor group stage resulted in an extra match and a difficult path in the playoffs.
Hallam has received criticism for his Olympic team selection, and, for example, Filip Forsberg, Sweden's top scorer in the NHL at the time, was left out of the team for two games.
In the World Championship, weak performances in the group stage also contributed to this. They finished fourth after losing to Norway, and thus faced an undefeated, dominant Switzerland in the quarterfinals.
"Of course I know he has received a lot of criticism for this, but I think the responsibility should be placed on us, the players, in this tournament," says World Championship goalkeeper Magnus Hellberg.
“The world of sports is cruel”
Hallam says he himself is not satisfied with his results.
"We should have won two gold medals anyway. If we had scored a goal in overtime at the Olympics, it could have been a completely different journey there. Those are incredibly small margins and we haven't managed to turn them in our favor."
Mattias Ekholm was snubbed before the Olympics, but still chose to play in the World Championship.
"It's a shame we can't finish in a better way for him, but you can't always get what you want," says the Edmonton defenseman.
Now Rikard Grönborg is making a comeback as national team coach - Tre Kronor's previous World Championship-winning coach after the titles in 2017 and 2018.
Sam Hallam's results as national team coach in the Olympics, World Cup and Four Nations:
World Champiobship 2023: Sixth. Out in the quarterfinals against Latvia (1–3).
World Championship 2024: Bronze. Fell in the semifinals against the Czech Republic (3–7).
Four Nations 2025: Third. Had no chance of reaching the final after two of three matches played.
World Championship 2025: Bronze. Fell in the semifinals against the USA (2–6).
Olympics 2026: Seventh. Out in the quarterfinals against the USA (1–2 after extra time).
World Championship 2026: Seventh. Out in the quarterfinals against Switzerland (1–3).
