MILAN – Victor Hedman was in uniform and on the bench but did not play for Team Sweden in a 2-1 overtime loss against Team USA in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 at Santagiulia Arena on Wednesday.
Hedman sustained a lower-body injury during pregame warmups and was not available to play even though he stayed on the bench for the entire game.
“Obviously, it’s a tough, tough blow for us,” defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “It also speaks on his character to be able to make that decision on his own that he couldn’t perform at the level he needed to to be an improvement on our team. It sucks that we couldn’t do more to give him a chance to play another game.”
Sweden coach Sam Hallam said he learned that Hedman was injured and unable to play shortly before going into the dressing room to give his final speech and announce the starting lineup.
He said Hedman was supposed to be in the starting lineup.
“He tweaked something late in the warmups,” Hallam said. “I was two or three minutes away from walking into the locker room to give my last speech and the starting six when I got news that Hedman was out. Quick check and he wanted to stay in his uniform and be with his team and his guys. We were planning to start him in the starting six. So, there was a quick change there. Hampus Lindholm came in and played a hell of a game.”
Hallam said it was 10 minutes from opening face-off when all this happened. He said the coaching staff briefly thought about replacing Hedman in the lineup with Rasmus Andersson, who was a healthy scratch, but decided against it.
“We had seven ‘D’s dressed so Hampus was good to go,” Hallam said. “We had five seconds to think about it and we said, ‘No, let’s keep 77 with his group.’ ”
Hedman, the 35-year-old defenseman from the Tampa Bay Lightning, said before the tournament began that this would be his one and only appearance at the Olympics.
He fought back from an elbow injury that required surgery on Dec. 11 to be ready in time to play at the Olympics, getting into three games with the Lightning before departing for Milan.
“Talk about a heartbreaker,” Sweden captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “We knew there was no place he’d rather be than on the ice competing with us. Forced to have to sit out, yeah, I was hurting for him. I really was and I still am. I know how long he’d been working toward this and looking forward to this.”
Hedman had a goal and an assist in the four games he played. He averaged 18:42 of ice time per game.
