New Jersey Devils: No Love For Bergfors?

As you may already know, all the countries participating in this year's Olympic Games in Vancouver have released their lineups for ice hockey. Certain countries, such as Russia and Canada, had some rather obvious choices in terms of their roster makeup. And other teams, such as the United States and Sweden, made a few out-of-the-ordinary selections. I don't have a problem with selecting players to fit a role but I mean what is up with Sweden overlooking Devils rookie Niclas Bergfors?

Sweden has a plethora of skilled hockey players and is considered a top contender this year, due in fact that they won the gold last time around at the '06 Olympics in Torino. This team tends to be stacked with highly skilled individuals, rivaling the Russians. Aside from the veterans sprinkled throughout the lineup, several young stars including Rangers savior Henrik Lundqvist, Red Wings center Henrik Zetterberg and playmaker Nicklas Backstrom from Washington earned their stripes to play for their country.

After scanning across Sweden's roster, I had one question: Where is Niclas Bergfors?

It's a tad bit strange that one of the most surprising rookies thus far was left off the roster for such a skilled and possibly gold medal team. I understand that Sweden wanted to retain some of the players who were responsible for their gold medal effort in the previous Olympics, but come on, give the kid some credit.

The 23rd overall pick in the 2005 NHL draft wasn't even supposed to make the team this year according to many but Bergfors was able to play himself onto the roster instead of ending up in Lowell. And he hasn't disappointed since jumping on board, currently sitting in 3rd in points by a rookie, as well as 2nd in goals and 5th in assists. His strong play has continued as the season progresses, even getting playing time on the top line with Zach Parise. That alone is a great achievement for a player who supposedly wasn't even going to crack the lineup this season. Bergfors also has a strong showing in international play, posting 8 points in 13 games in 2 years of World Junior Championship play.

So what's the deal with Team Sweden looking past this rookie's surprise season? According to the Swedes, they would rather have a veteran laden team that has only a few newer players and that's it. The question that needs to be asked is why do Fredrik Modin, Tomas Holmstrom and Sammy Pahlsson deserve a spot?

All three are returnees from the '06 gold medal team, but what have they done this season that they have rightly earned a spot?

The guy with the most points out of this crew is Holmstrom, who seems to have lost his touch in Detroit. The team has struggled, as has Holmstrom, as his 21 points through 41 games has suggested. Holmstrom's only skill is to stand in front of goaltenders and deflect pucks, but he can't even do that at a consistent basis.

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