Hearsay: Swedes tweet golden smiles

Team Sweden forward Henrik Sedin celebrates his goal against Switzerland during the first period of the gold medal game. (CP/Jacques Boissinot)

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SWEDES TWEET GOLDEN SMILES

Led by Vancouver Canucks’ twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin, along with the puck-stopping abilities of Buffalo Sabres goaltender Jhonas Enroth, Sweden earned a gold medal in front of the home crowd at the IIHF World Championship Sunday with a convincing 5-1 win.

The Sedins combined for 16 points in their four starts since being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs by the San Jose Sharks. Enroth was named best goaltender.

Here are just a few of the celebratory tweets, followed by more Hearsay stories – including Jarome Iginla’s thoughts on his free agency future and the potential origins of John Tortorella’s fieriness.

IGINLA EMBRACES FUTURE’S UNCERTAINTY

Headed into the weekend, The Calgary Herald noted Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jarome Iginla is relaxed as far as his future. He remains an unrestricted free agent in July, and nothing, he stresses, is set in stone.

“My wife and I talk about it all the time. This is a unique life situation for us, in our experiences. I really have no idea what’s ahead. Truly. We don’t know what’s going to happen and we’re fine with that. You saw we sold our house in Calgary. That doesn’t mean we’ll never live in Calgary again, we just want to be prepared. A lot of questions but, like I said, no real answers.

“The focus right now is on trying to win here, now.”

Any chance of calling it quits if the Penguins win the Cup?

“No, I don’t plan on retiring.

“I still feel good. I still love the game. God willing, I’d love to win the Cup this year. But, regardless, I plan on playing for a while longer.”

WINGS’ ENTHUSIASM RUBS OFF ON BABCOCK

The Detroit Free Press relays how Red Wings coach Mike Babcock often stresses the importance of enjoying the experience of everything that comes with being in the NHL. It’s a message he’s wanted his players to absorb, but it applies to himself, too.

“It’s fun, it’s the most fun I’ve had coaching in a couple of years, by far,” Babcock said after an optional practice Sunday at Joe Louis Arena. “Just because we’ve got an enthusiastic group. Not that we didn’t before, but we’ve got a really enthusiastic group. We’ve got good leadership.

“At the start of the year, we weren’t a good team, but we understand that. We buckled down and we got better. The coaching staff is fun, the players are fun, it’s been a fun year for us.”

And now?

“Then suddenly you have a little success in the playoffs,” Babcock said, “and it’s more fun.”

CAPS BELIEVE IN HOLTBY, NEUVIRTH

CSNWashington.com has been running quotes from post-elimination Capitals general manager George McPhee in a four-part series.

On if he sees a competition between goaltenders Braden Holtby, 23, and Michal Neuvirth, 25, next season: “I don’t view it as a competition and I don’t know that we have a hierarchy. I think both of our goaltenders are outstanding. There’s no reason they can’t be the best goalies in the league. Both are really young goalies and they’ll only get better with experience. The guy we played against [Henrik Lundqvist] is an experienced goaltender now but our guy was just as good as he was all the way around and seven or eight years younger. I know I mentioned this before, but Michal Neuvirth is a heck of a goalie and there’s no reason he can’t be one of the best in this league. He’s as talented as anybody. And Holtby has really come a long way. He’s a really talented kid, too. So I have a lot of faith in both of them.

On whether it is a dilemma with two young goalies and one net: “No. Isn’t that what you want, honestly? You don’t want one good goalie and a pylon. You want two good goalies and we do and they’re young and there’s so much upside for these kids.”

ORIGINS OF FIERY TORTORELLA

The New York Daily News scripts an absolutely fascinating look back into the Boston-area high school life of Rangers coach John Tortorella.

Brent Clark, Tortorella’s baseball coach at Concord-Carlisle High School in the ‘70s, recalls Tortorella the student and athlete showed a deep respect for authority, deferring to the teacher or coach, and has carried that same old-school attitude into his NHL job. He’s the boss now. No questions.

“It’s almost like all I had to do was give him a nod and wink and he knew what I wanted him to do and he’d do it. “He wasn’t a defiant, in your face type of kid,” Clark said. “He was, ‘What do you want me to do, coach? What do you want our team to do, coach? And I’ll do it.’ I wish he handled the media a little bit better, I wish he showed them a little bit more respect, but I’ve heard him in some really good press conferences, and I’ve heard him in some press conferences where he hasn’t been so nice to deal with … I think there can be a trust issue there, if a media member misquotes him or takes something out of context or doesn’t portray what he says in his mind, that’s it. You’ve crossed the line with him and screw you. That could be where that comes from.”

CANES’ ERIC STAAL DODGES SURGERY BULLET

The Raleigh News & Observer asserts Eric Staal’s diagnosis may been the best the Carolina Hurricanes could have hoped for, given the nature of his knee injury sustained at the World Championship.

Staal underwent an MRI exam Saturday morning in Raleigh, which determined the Canes’ captain has a third-degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. No surgery will be required, and Staal faces three months of physical rehabilitation.

“I don’t know that ‘relief’ is the right word to use but we are thankful the injury was not any worse,” Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said Saturday. “It could have been better, but it wasn’t, but Eric has three months to rehab it and we’re hopeful he will be healthy and ready by the start of (preseason) training camp.”

Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward suffered a third-degree sprain – by definition, a tear – of his left MCL during a March 3 game at Florida. Ward, who did not have surgery, missed the remainder of the regular season but was skating again in the final weeks of the season.

“Eric’s injury isn’t identical to Cam’s, but I was told it’s pretty close,” Rutherford said.

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