Tre Kronor Focused on Winning World Championship at Home

Properly handled, a World Championship on home soil is a unique opportunity to experience a more than two-week-long celebration with a glittering finale.

That's what star goalie Jacob Markström, New Jersey, knows, being the only one on today's team who was part of the team that took gold at the Globe in 2013.

It's going to be fantastically fun. There are very fine memories from last time, the celebration afterwards is still very warm in my heart, he says ahead of tonight's World Championship premiere against Slovakia.

Few home golds

At the same time, it's only two more nations that have managed to take gold on home soil during the 2000s, the Czech Republic last year and Finland in 2022.

The World Championship has been decided eleven times in Sweden – and the gold in 2013 is the only one for the ice hockey national team.

There are pitfalls too. The pressure on the team is, of course, extra large, the players are being watched from all angles.

Supporters, friends, and family want the best – but it can become too much with coffee breaks, dinners, and other things.

It's definitely something you need to think about, then it's up to themselves. It depends on how you are as a person. Everyone handles it differently, says Nashville star Filip Forsberg.

"Not much time"

For national team captain Sam Hallam, this is his third World Championship, and he says the tough game schedule is helpful:

There's not much time left for anything else than focusing, delivering, and recovering. We play very tightly, we have a very good way of creating a good environment at the hotel, just like last year in Ostrava and the year before in Tammerfors. There, the players get the chance to socialize, hang out, and have dinner together.

The teams that make it to the medal games play ten matches in 17 World Championship days.

During the World Championship in Stockholm, the players have two completely free days, free from practice and media meetings.

Then there's room for the players to really meet their families and friends. But everyone knows that this opportunity we're given we'll probably only get once. So it's not a "go home and meet the buddies and hang with the parents" trip. They can do that later. We're here to play hockey and win, says Hallam.

Göran Sundberg/TT