Details of a nasty illness ravaging Team Sweden emerge and it’s tough not to feel sorry for them

There have been a lot of reports of injuries at the ongoing 4 nations tournament, the latest being USA and Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital to cut out and clean an infection and will not play in the championship game on Thursday. He is expected to be sidelined on a week-to-week basis until the area can heal.

With both teams in the final dealing with injuries, the news about Team Sweden and their health struggles wasn’t in the forefront. However, it was revealed after Sweden’s participation how decimated the dressing room was.

An illness took Sweden’s goaltender Filip Gustavsson out of Saturday’s game, and then it took out netminder Linus Ullmark out on Monday. Third-string Samuel Ersson got the start against Team USA.

Forwards Mika Zibanejad and Rickard Rakell were late scratches for Sweden as well, all due to a nasty illness spreading into the Swedes’ dressing room.

Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects revealed the details of the terrible virus that took out several key players for Sweden and how many went on to play sick and dehydrated:

“Sources indicate that while the flu has spread around the 4 Nations, Team Sweden wasn’t just dealing with a little bug running through their team.

“Guys were ravaged. Weak. Dehydrated. Surely impacted their play to a great level.”

Sweden still managed to beat the shorthanded Americans on Monday, who had to play without Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk, and then lost Brady Tkachuk in the second period after colliding with Ersson in the crease.

Despite the victory over the Americans, team Sweden was out of the tournament. The U.S. team had already clinched a spot in the title game, and Canada earned its way there by beating Finland 5-3 earlier Monday to finish the group stage.

While I’m sure it was heartbreaking for the Swedes to miss out on the final, some players will surely appreciate the extra time to recover from that nasty bug.