In July of 2007, Carl Soderberg was traded to the Boston Bruins in exchange for Hannu Tonivonen, a Bruins goalie who played a total of 38 games for the big club over two seasons. A little less than 6 years later, secured a multi-year deal to officially bring Soderburg onto their roster. 2 days after that, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association blocked the deal basically saying "HE'S MINE!". In the immediate wake of that, Soderburg came right back refusing to play for any Swedish team therefore forcing the SIHF to allow the trade to go through.
So after all that why did we fight so hard for this guy? After a total of 5 seasons as a Swedish Elite League player, Soderburgh was widely regarded as the Sidney Crosby of Swedish Hockey. 143 goals, to compliment a career points total of 382. Yet once he crossed oceans something changed. In the 6 games he played for the Bruins this year, Soderburg did basically nothing save for 2 meager assists in games against 2 teams that failed to make the playoffs this year (Florida Panthers and Philadelphia Flyers). Through those six games, Soderberg managed just 6 shots on goal and was a minus three in the +/- category. What up with that?
Well here you go. Reason number one: goalies and defenders are better in the NHL then they are in the SEL, it’s just a fact you go from a seemingly amateur league where it's champion could easily be beaten by the Calgary Flames to a league where those same Flames went 19-25-4 last year there is going to be a drop-off No argument there.
Reason number two: rink size. With a width of 100 feet and a length of 200 feet, the SEL's 20,000 square feet of ice, is almost 3,000 square feet larger than that of the NHL's rinks. With those boards now closer together, things were completely thrown off for poor Soderberg as the puck bounces faster, players are on you faster and really everything is faster.
In his first 6 games as an NHL'er, his adopted league has not treated Soderberg well. Regardless when the line combinations for tonight's game five of the Cup Finals came out it was Soderberg that was in and in a surprising move it was Jager that would be sitting out. In just a few hours, Carl Soderberg will be inserted into the game of his life, playing on the 4th line of a Boston Bruins team that will be playing for a win that would put them just 1 win away from a Stanley Cup Championship. How bout that for nerves?
Go Bruins #Burythebrid
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