August 2010

Zetterberg Paid Tribute to “Matchmaker”, Kenny Jonsson

By George Malik, Mlive.com, August 22, 2010

Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg spent the past week practicing with Rogle BK and preparing to take part in former NHL defenseman and Rogle assistant coach Kenny Jonsson's farewell game on Saturday afternoon.

After the game, he talked to Aftonbladet's Mats Wennerholm about the other reason why he participated in Jonsson's farewell game:

August 22, Aftonbladet (roughly translated):

During Kenny Jonsson's tearful farewell game, Henrik Zetterberg took the opportunity to thank Kenny.
On the ice and before 5,000 spectators at Lindab Arena.
He thanked him for leading him to his newly-married wife, Emma Andersson.
"Yes, he's a great matchmaker.  Without Kenny, I wouldn't be married today," said Zata. 
Kenny Jonsson had a fantastic last game before his home crowd in Angelholm yesterday.
He received a standing ovation that might still be going on if the game's master of ceremonies, Ake Ungar, hadn't chosen to break up.
Lindab arena was sold out before the game and fans went on the bidding site Tradera to find the coveted tickets from people who wanted to sell them. 
All of Angelholm wanted to come to say goodbye.  Like Kenny Jonsson's old teammates from the national team and the NHL.
Henrik Zetterberg said yes immediately. Not just because he was part of the historic dual gold-medal-winning teams with Kenny in 2006--Olympic gold and a World Championship win in the same season.
Kenny was the one who led him to the great love of his life, Emma.
"Yes, he put in a good word for me.  Emma was in daycare with Kenny when she was little, and Kenny's parents know Emma's parents.  That's the way it went."
Kenny laughed when he heard Zata's praise for him as a matchmaker.
"Yes, perhaps it happened that way.  We lived in the same area and my mom, Ingrid, was babysitting Emma.  She knew me, and I knew Zata, and by chance, they happened to meet.  And I happened to be there and introduced them to each other," says Kenny.
It ended with a tremendous wedding in Molle earlier this summer.  Or it began perhaps with a better word.
"It was a fantastic wedding and we didn't spare a thing.  It was a full pour," says Zata. 
Then he and Emma went on a honeymoon to the Seychelles for ten days, preciely when Kenny started to call up his NHL pals.
"Yes, he was difficult to reach, but eventually I got to him and he accepted immediately when I did," says Kenny.

Zetterberg 'Star Shines' at Kenny Jonsson's Retirement Game Practice

By George Mailk, Mlive.com,  August 21, 2010

Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg and former Wing Andreas Lilja are taking part in an exhibition game commemorating long-time NHL'er and Rogle BK assistant coach Kenny Jonsson in Angelholm, Sweden today, and Helsingborgs Dagblad's Sara Johansson spoke to Zetterberg as he practiced alongside Henrik Lundqvist, Mats Sundin and more than a few of Johnsson's contemporaries on Friday.

August 21, Hesingborgs Dagblad (roughly translated):

Among the hockey sticks, practicing, and laughter, Henrik Zetterberg's star shone at the All-Star team's practice. 
He's won Olympic gold, World Championships and the Stanley Cup.  He was named the NHL playoffs' most valuable player and won the golden puck.  Now the star Henrik Zetterberg's in Angelholm to pay tribute to Kenny Jonsson.
"It's an honor to be here, and I was absolutely and obviously going to show up when Kenny asked," says Zata.
The two players had battled together on the national team and won Olympic gold together in 2006.  But they also practiced/trained together when Zetterberg spent summers in Angelholm.
"Kenny is a fantastic hockey player.  He and Lidas (Nicklas Lidstrom) are the best defensemen I've played with." 
While most of the team looked more or less rusty during the practice, Zata showed little glimpses [which suggested] that he's still at the peak of his career.  Together with Andreas Lilja, he drilled Henrik Lundqvist in the goal, while hte veterans took one of their many water or stretching breaks. 
"Lundqvist wanted to go a little longer.  It's fun to practice with him, too, because we don't meet up often, otherwise."
The practice involved more nostalgia and laughter than tempo or commitment, but Zata had fun on the ice.
"It's a really great initiative and it's a fantastic group with many legends.  It's fantastically cool for us who still want to meet the players that we've looked up to."
Will you play for the full game?
"We'll see what level the game's played at, but nobody here wants to lose.  Since of course it takes a little getting used to when things get started."
He knows what he's up against in terms of opposition this afternoon.
"I've practiced with Rogle a bit and now of late, and I've found that they're very fast skaters.  They think it's clearly going to be fun to play against us and win.  I
Zetterberg's linemates, Mats Sundin and Daniel Alfredsson, will join the team today.  Then it remains to be seen whether the loaded list [of stars] or the young speedsters will win on the ice.

Zetterberg Praises New Swedish National Team Coach

By George Malik, Mlive.com, August 21, 2010

When Sweden bowed out of the 2010 Olympics in the quarterfinals, the Swedish press absolutely skewered coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson for making bizarre decisions in terms of player personnel decisions and coaching decisions during the tournament…

The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation and the press have played up Team Sweden's decision to replace Gustafsson with Per Marts, a coach who promised to communicate with Sweden's star players, and NHL stars in particular, on a regular basis to keep them in the loop as to their chances of making the national team, the expectations they'd have to live up to, and on the players' parts, allow Marts to know in advance whether they'd lean toward participating in the Olympics or World Championships based upon injuries and mental as well as physical fatigue.

So it comes as no surprise that Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg has added his name to the long list of Swedish NHL'ers praising Marts' progressive approach in an interview with Expressen's Mattias Eriksson.  What does come as a surprise, however, involves Zetterberg's blunt self-assessment of his Olympic performance and his admission of the fact that he was mentally and physically gassed, perhaps even before the NHL's 2009-2010 regular season began:

August 21, Expressen (roughly translated):
Tre Kronor new coach Par Marts had a secret meeting with Henrik Zetterberg
In a huge interview with SPORT-Expressen, the superstar retells the meeting, explains why he turned down [playing in the] World Championships and how he viewed his Olympic effort.
"I get a failing grade.  It didn't go as well in that instance as I'd intended."
Today Henrik Zetterberg's playing in the tribute game for Kenny Jonsson in Angelholm, which has become Zata's second home locale in Sweden because his wife, Emma Andersson, is from the region--the couple married in Molle in July. 
Today's game is special for Zata.  He's always said that Detroit teammate Nicklas Lidstrom is the best he's ever played with--but Kenny isn't far behind.
"He and Lidas are the best defensemen that I've played with in my career," says Zetterberg.
"I wasn't prepared at all"
Zata and Kenny played together for the Tre Kronor, with the Olympic gold in 2006 as the highlight. 
But when coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson called Zata in Detroit last spring and asked if he could play in the World Championship, the answer was no, just as it was for most of the other Olympic players.
He's always been there for the Tre Kronor previously, and turned them down all of a sudden. Now Zetterberg can reveal why for the first time:
"I was mentally exhausted, that was what the reason was.  There was so much hockey and short summers over the past three seasons.  It was a tough year in Detroit and the Olympics made the season even longer.  I didn't have the energy to expend or reload in terms of the mental part and I wasn't prepared at all to play in the World Championships."
This was after Zetterberg's likely most difficult season in his career, with failures for both the Tre Kronor in the Olympics and with Detroit in the NHL--and his own season, which wasn't the same as the past, when he was among the world's best players.
"It was clearly a down season, and I wasn't really prepared.  I didn't feel the same physically, and not in my head, either."
What about the Olympics, now that there's some distance from them?
"I'm very disappointed, because you don't know how many Olympic games you can get the chance to play in.  On paper we had a team that could've gone a really long way but we weren't good enough when the time came."
And your own performance?
"I get a failing grade.  It didn't go as I'd imagined at all."
After the quarterfinal defeat to Slovakia, Bengt-Ake Gustafsson received the entirety of criticism, and SPORT-Expressen repeatedly aired the players' dissatisfaction with him. 
"It's clear in retrospect that there were things that could have been differently, but it's easy to be the [Monday morning quarterback] and find fault.  We played the same way in Turin and we won gold then."
Now Bengt-Ake has left and Per Marts has taken over.
"Bengt-Ake was my coach when we won both the Olympic gold and the World Championships, and he was the coach that I won the most with in my international career.  I'll always remember that."
"But it was right to change the national team's coach.  Everything has its time, and it's necessary for the renewal of a team or teams."
Earlier this summer, just before Zata and Emma Andersson's wedding, Marts, assistant national team coach Peter Sundstrom and Zata met in secret at the Grand Hotel in Molle--the same hotel where he and Emma Andersson were married.
"It was a really good meeting.  He laid forward his thoughts and so on.  It was a little Swedish, a little clearer in terms of roles on the team.  Everybody won't play on the power play, for example."
"We're the ones who play in North America, and are more used to playing at the international level, and what's required to point out and think about." 
Zata praises Marts' initiative and his direct contact with NHL players, and his plan to be in continual contact with the stars during the NHL season.
"It's important to have communication between players and coaches, not just before the World Championships without having contacted or called and checked [your] situation during the year's time.  Then you get insight into how everything works." 
Marts hopes that dialogue with players will yield fewer, "No thanks" responses to requests to play in the World Championships.
"There have been many no's, but not everybody understands that we all want to play for the national team, but when really go we want to perform," says Zata.
"In order to be able to provide something we need to be healthy and mentally ready."
And you can count on seeing Zetterberg in the World Championships if Detroit goes out early in the playoffs. 
"The times that I've participated in the World Championships, they were unbelievably fun and I definitely see myself playing in the World Championship in the future, and I think the majority of NHL players do."

Henrik Zetterberg Interview (translated from Swedish)