Predictions and odds for Sweden's performance at the 2022 Hockey World Championship

The Swedish team under Johan Garpenlöv has failed to win a single major tournament trophy. Will the team get a chance to break up their losing streak? We predict that the Tre Kronor won't make it to the final again!

The Swedish team is on the verge of serious changes. After successful years with Rikard Grönborg at the helm, the Tre Kronor are led by Johan Garpenlöv, who has not won a single trophy in major international tournaments yet. And now, after the 2022 FIFA World Cup, he will leave his post. The 54-year-old is remembered for his years of work with the Yellow and Blue, his only disappointing showing at the last World Cup, and his fourth-place finish at the Beijing Olympics.

Things got off to a flying start for Johan Garpenlöv at the 2019 World Cup, where he invited a host of NHL stars, but he lost in the quarterfinals to a modestly-named Finnish team, 4-5. At the 2021 World Cup, Tre Kronor also had a decent roster compared to their competitors, but they did not even make it out of the group. The Swedes were close to a triumph at the Beijing Olympics, reaching the shootout stage in the semi-finals, but lost to Russia and were beaten 0-4 by Slovakia in the game for the bronze.

Sweden played two games against Norway and Denmark in their opening preparations for the 2022 World Cup, scoring three wins on aggregate and one defeat. In the third leg of the European Tour, the Tre Kronor beat Austria, and Finland 1-0 and 2-0 respectively but crushingly lost to the Czech Republic 3-9. At the domestic Swedish Games, Johan Garpenlöv's side lost again to the Czech Republic 1-2, but then beat the Swiss and Finns 3-2 and 4-3, respectively, and are well on their way to the 2022 World Cup.

Sweden are one of the most decorated national teams in the world, and in the past decade, the Tre Kronor have won the World Cup three times. Those triumphs are slowly being forgotten, as the last time they triumphed was in 2018 after Johan Garpenlöv took charge of the national team and never made it to a major tournament medal. The Swedes' chances of success at the 2022 World Cup are also slim, although they bring in a pretty good name line-up. Considering that the Swedes are terribly competitive in the group and their play-offs are awful, I am willing to bet that Sweden will not reach the final for 1.72.

In the 2022 World Cup, Sweden are in a similar group to their predecessor at the 2019 World Cup. There are Austrians, Norwegians, and Latvians, while the Italians are replaced by the British. The Tre Kronor sent a whole host of goals to each of these national teams in the tournament, with the Yellow and Blue registering a total of 41 goals in seven group stage games. Moreover, even at the more competitive 2022 Olympics, Johan Garpenlöv's charges scored ten goals in three games. So, we would expect them to score again, and we would expect Total Over 26.5 pucks for Sweden for 1.85.

The Swedish national team is renowned for its quality implementation of the numerical advantage. In the same Olympics in Beijing, Johan Garpenlöv's squad scored five power-play goals in the tournament's group stage and ten goals in total. That is, half of them were scored when playing with a numerical advantage. There is no doubt that at the 2022 World Cup, the modest Austrian, Norwegian, and British teams will also be unable to keep up with the pace of the faster Yellow and Blue, who will frequently take advantage of penalties, while the Tre Kronor will take advantage of them. Therefore, a bet on Sweden's Total Over 8.5 power play pucks for 1.85 is worth looking at.

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