Matheson: Olympic snub a sore spot for Oilers blueliner Mattias Ekholm

When Edmonton Oilers’ defenceman Mattias Ekholm got the phone call to tell him he wasn’t on Sweden’s Olympic team, it was a pretty short conversation.

There likely wasn’t a “thanks for letting me know.”

Kind of like when you get a call and are let go from a company.

Just a massive let-down. There’s hurt, then there’s anger.

“This was probably my last shot at it. It’s right up there with the Stanley Cup, the Olympics. Huge disappointment, not much I can do about it now,” said Ekholm, who had a very legitimate shot at being the seventh or eighth D on what is a strong Swedish back-end but they took ex Oiler Philip Broberg, who has had a strong season in St. Louis and Leafs’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson, instead.

He’s likely on stand-by in case anybody gets hurt between now and when the NHL schedule stops for the Olympic break Feb. 5. But for now, he was told to stand down.

“They said I had just missed (out). So I guess I’m on that (wait) list.”

The other Swedish defencemen considered but losing out were Boston’s Hampus Lindholm and Detroit’s young Simon Edvinsson. The top six were Victor Hedman, Rasmus Dahlin and Gustav on the left side, Erik Karlsson, Jonas Brodin and Rasmus Andersson on the right.

Hedman, who could be team captain, is currently out after elbow surgery in Tampa, but they hope he’s ready for Milan. “There are two ways of going with this. Firstly, someone from the existing squad can take his place, or we can replace him from outside. In that case, there are a few names,” said coach Sam Hallam in conversation with Swedish media.

The Swedish-Ekholm decision Friday was maybe in the cards as far back as last February at the 4 Nations Face-off, when the flu-ridden Ekholm somehow fell out of favour with Hallam. The coach was going to sit him for the last tournament game, but dressed Ekholm as an extra D with minimal minutes when some forwards got sick and didn’t play.

“I said the same thing to the Swedish papers … that I hope that wasn’t a part of it,” said Ekholm. “I don’t think it was anywhere near as big a deal as the media brought it out to be. It’s more a question for him (Hallam), he’s the one picking the team.”

Hallam might be the only coach in history who didn’t fully appreciate what Ekholm brings to the table, and while Evan Bouchard’s Oiler partner struggled in the early going of the season like pretty much every D-man, his game over the last month or so has picked up considerably. But, again, it was hard not to see the hurt in the Ekholm words when talking to the media here after Oilers’ practice.

“I think I’ve done everything I can on the ice, especially in the last month, month and a half. I’ve really shown what I can do out there, being an effective hockey player who deserves to be on that (Swedish) team. But, obviously, he didn’t think so.”

Ekholm can use the three-week rest to recharge as an Oiler at his age, but that’s from the outside looking in. This was his big chance to be in the Olympics for the first time, and his nose is pressed up against the glass. He’s a competitor, and he badly wanted to be part of the 25-man Swedish roster.

He struggled at the 4Nations because he was sick. He was that way before the event, and afterwards, his voice a whisper, trying not to cough during interviews here.

“That was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?” said the Oiler defenceman.

“I had some virus going on. It lasted for months,” he said.

Trying to get your breath when your lungs are clogged with cold is hard, especially with the pace of the 4 Nations.

“Yeah (speed), that’s amplified,” he said.

“But there’s no excuse at that time of year (February). Everybody has something going on.”

And so only two Oilers are on Olympic rosters right now—Connor McDavid for Canada and Leon Draisaitl for Germany. Bouchard is also on a wait list if anybody goes down on the Canadian blueline.

This ‘n that: Draisaitl will have the C for the German team in Italy, and there’s a chance that Oilers farmhand centre Josh Samanski, in his first North American pro year in Bakersfield and doing well, might also be on the Olympic roster as he’s played for Germany at the world championship. They haven’t announced their roster yet, and neither has Czechia, where David Tomasek, now playing back in Sweden for Farjestads, has an outside chance… Ex-Oilers winger Victor Arvidsson, who was at the 4 Nations and is now with Boston, didn’t make the Swedish forward list for Milan.