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WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

September 20, 2016

Rickard Gronborg

Toronto, Ontario

Team Sweden – 2
Team Finland ‑ 0

Q. Coach, a lot of the players are commenting on Henk's performance saying it was the Henk of old. What did you think of the way he was able to play today?
RICKARD GRONBORG: I think he played an excellent game. Obviously that's the way‑‑ he's one of the top goalies in the world, and I think he proved that tonight and gave us an opportunity to win. The more the game went on, I think he really stepped up and made some key saves for us. Yeah, he played real well.

Q. Anton Stralman had a goal in this game, Victor Hedman had a goal last game. What's that pair meant for you guys overall, and what can you just say about Stralman's game and what he's able to do for you guys?
RICKARD GRONBORG: Obviously they're the key players in our defensive end, but as you can tell, as you said, they scored a goal each here in the first two games in this tournament. That kind of tells you that they're really smooth skaters. They can fall off an attack and they make an offensive threat, as well. But me as a coach, we always look at the defensive side, and they're really solid that way. I think at the end of the day, there's a defensive pairing that play together a lot, and they showed us, too. So it's comfortable for us to put them out in any situation.

Q. Coach, you've got four goals in two games, two from defensemen, one empty netter and the one Landeskog goal. Are you a bit worried at this point about your forwards or do you think they're going to pick it up and start scoring?
RICKARD GRONBORG: I think our forwards are doing a great job of sticking to the game plan. Sooner or later I think we created some great scoring opportunities in both games here. So it's just a matter of time for some of the forwards to produce. Same thing in the power play. Obviously we need to step it up a little bit there for sure.
But they're working hard and sticking to the plan, and we keep telling our team to be patient and things are just going to happen, and I think we're playing as a patient team, and that obviously turned out well the first two games.

Q. When you start seeing Henrik making saves like a point blank save on Teravainen early in the game or a glove save the way he did, what kind of calm‑‑ can you just describe what it's like on the bench and that feeling when you see one of the best goalies in the world sharp, on top of his game and what that does for the whole team?
RICKARD GRONBORG: Well, we knew that coming into the tournament that he's a top goalie for sure. He's a piece in the puzzle for us to advance. If we're going to make it back in this tournament he needs to be on. And unfortunately the first game he wasn't on, but Markstrom stepped up then.
He gives a certain kind of stability, I would say. The players know that stuff happens, that he's going to be‑‑ he's the last post and he's a very good last post. I think he gives us stability from the top to the bottom of our lineup, and we as coaches, we know we can count on him.

Q. Given the fact that Henk was sick a couple days ago, how do you think he's going to react to playing two games at this level within a 24‑hour period?
RICKARD GRONBORG: It's tough for me to put myself in that position. Right now we've got to reassess. I haven't talked to him after the game. Going to reassess to see where we're at after the game and get all the information and then decide who's going to play tomorrow. But obviously he showed tonight how great of a goalie he is. Like I said, we'll get back to you on that one.

Q. The Lepisto hit on Backlund caught a little attention; I was wondering if you had any thoughts on it.
RICKARD GRONBORG: I didn't see that really. What I heard was a shoulder hit to the head or towards the nose. I know he was bleeding a little bit on the nose, but I didn't see what happened on that one.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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