Calgary Flames
Mikael Backlund is not going to Sochi
Early reports suggested Backlund would be Henrik Sedin's replacement after the Canucks forward pulled out due to injury, but they were inaccurate.
Yesterday Henrik Sedin officially announced his withdrawal from the Sochi Olympic Games. Someone somewhere in the Swedish media suggested that Mikael Backlund would be named as his replacement, and the news spread fast to Canada and the US.
Swedish media reporting that #Canucks Henrik Sedin is out of the Olympics and that Mikael Backlund will be his replacement.
— Matthew Sekeres (@mattsekeres) February 6, 2014
It turned out that at that point, Backlund hadn't actually gotten the call.
I haven’t heard anything about Olympics. I haven’t got the call to from Pär MÃ¥rts. No replacement is official yet!
— Mikael Backlund (@mbacklund11) February 6, 2014
Backlund was not named to the reserve list when the official Team Sweden roster was announced. My understanding is that the reserve lists only come into play once the tournament begins in order to replace players injured during the Olympics, in which case that would have had no effect on Backlund's eligibility.
Anyway, all of that was moot, because this morning it was announced that the Capitals‘ Marcus Johansson would be Sedin’s replacement instead. Johansson, 23, has been with the Capitals for full or partial seasons since 2010-11 and has 7 goals and 29 assists in 58 games this season.
Sorry Mickis. We still think it should have been you.
by Ruhee Dewji