3-2 win<\/a> over Slovakia, and added a third point on an empty-net assist against Switzerland. On Monday, Stenberg didn\u2019t register a point against Germany, but he drew two penalties, both of which led to Sweden goals by the other power-play unit, and hit a crossbar. Across three games, he has also missed three backdoor tap-ins (two against Switzerland and one against Germany), banging his stick at the bench in frustration after the third because he knows he still has more to give \u2014 and that three points in three games isn\u2019t up to his standard.<\/p>\n\u201cIn Fr\u00f6lunda, I really like the way I\u2019ve played. But in the national team, I can be better. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve created as much as I can. It\u2019s tough to go down tempo, but it\u2019ll get better the longer the tournament goes. It\u2019ll come. I know it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sweden\u2019s head coach, Magnus Havelid, knows it\u2019s coming as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will get better and better. He\u2019s getting used to this kind of hockey again as well,\u201d Havelid said on Sunday. \u201cIt\u2019s different than the SHL and with the smaller surface and the chemistry in the unit. I\u2019m sure he will be better. He\u2019s working hard. It\u2019s only a matter of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the names that have been thrown around with Stenberg\u2019s can make your head spin.<\/p>\n
He likes to compare himself to Tim St\u00fctzle, whose combination of playmaking, shooting and skating he thinks mirrors his own.<\/p>\n
In Sweden, Sj\u00f6strom says Nicklas Backstrom\u2019s name has been thrown out there a lot because they have the \u201csame type of smartness.\u201d But Sj\u00f6strom thinks Backstrom was more of a pass-first guy and that Ivar \u201calso has a lethal shot and can be a big-time goal scorer as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fr\u00f6lunda\u2019s head coach, Robert Ohlsson, uses Henrik Zetterberg and Mats Naslund.<\/p>\n
Naslund for the way he reads the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he sees the ice, his vision on the ice, and his decision-making from that is what stands out most about him. He\u2019s real top quality the way he sees the ice,\u201d Ohlsson said on a recent phone call. \u201cI\u2019m up to 20 years now, and I haven\u2019t had many or any players in my coaching career who can really read and see the ice like that kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Zetterberg for that sense and the balance he has on his skates for a 5-foot-11, 183-pound player.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if he\u2019s a little bit smaller, he\u2019s always in good balance in battles because he can anticipate where everybody is at and is going, even when it\u2019s really, really tight in the corners and stuff like that. He\u2019s always ready to find those small things,\u201d Ohlsson said. \u201cZetterberg had that balance on the ice, and he was really good on seeing the ice, and I think Ivar has that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming into this year, Ohlsson didn\u2019t want to set his expectations too high for Stenberg. But when he first saw him play last year for Fr\u00f6lunda\u2019s under-20 junior team, he remembers thinking, \u201cOh, this is something extra. This is something that doesn\u2019t come around every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI could tell right away when you were watching the games he played and some of the decisions and the plays he made. But I didn\u2019t know he was going to be this good in the men\u2019s. You never know with the young players, but Ivar can really play with the men\u2019s team,\u201d Ohlsson said, chuckling as if he was understating it. \u201cI can say that!\u201d<\/p>\n
Stenberg\u2019s standout trait is how he controls the pace of the game when he has the puck. Sjostrom talks about him almost as a puppeteer who pulls the strings of his opponents with his hockey sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not the fastest guy \u2014 and he\u2019s not slow \u2014 or the strongest guy, but he plays in his own rhythm, and I think it\u2019s pretty impressive as a young kid like that playing men\u2019s hockey in a very good league in Europe,\u201d Sj\u00f6strom said. \u201cHe just seems to have so much time. (He\u2019s) never in a hurry making plays, and I think that\u2019s his biggest attribute as a player on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s got that same aura about him off the ice, according to both Sj\u00f6strom and Ohlsson, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a pretty cool guy,\u201d Sj\u00f6strom said. \u201cHe never seems like he gets nervous, and he keeps everything on an even keel. It\u2019s impressive. I mean, look how much it has been for him off the ice already for him this season. It has just been nonstop journalists and TV. He seems to take it in stride and doesn\u2019t get flustered, and doesn\u2019t let it get to his head either. He\u2019s really well-liked by all of the older guys on the team, and he doesn\u2019t come across as cocky or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That calmness about him shouldn\u2019t be construed as a lack of competitiveness, though, either, they both insist.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an easygoing guy, a happy guy, and socially real good. People like to hang with him, and he can hang with everybody. He smiles in his eyes and not only with his face, too, which I think is a good quality. (But) he\u2019s also really ambitious and driven,\u201d Ohlsson said.<\/p>\n
Ohlsson only has one gripe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he wants to be a really, really, top, top player in the NHL, I just tell him he has to shoot more,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cHopefully, the smaller rink will add that scoring mentality a little bit. I\u2019ve noticed in the last couple of weeks in the SHL here, he has started to shoot more shots, so I think he\u2019s aware of it, and he\u2019s working on it. And I think when he comes to the smaller rink, he will pretty fast adapt to that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
On and off the ice, Stenberg never looks like he\u2019s under the pressure that he is.<\/p>\n
The draft?<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no expectations,\u201d he told\u00a0The Athletic before the season started. \u201cI can\u2019t think about it. What happens happens. I\u2019m looking forward to making good things happen for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that comes from following the example his older brother, Blues forward Otto, and dad, David, a former professional player in Sweden, always set for him. Part of it comes from wanting to set the same example for his younger brother Knut, a 16-year-old defenseman for Fr\u00f6lunda\u2019s under-18 team.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s happy to say he idolizes his big brother. They\u2019ve always done everything together. They grew up playing on a backyard rink at their house, and his competitiveness comes from their many \u201cbig battles.\u201d They spend their summers golfing, skating, training and hanging out together. And they both took the same path from their hometown of Stenungsund on Sweden\u2019s west coast to Gothenburg with Fr\u00f6lunda.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also happy to say he wants to be better than his brother, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say I\u2019m a little bit more skilled, and he\u2019s more heavy and has a better shot. I\u2019m more offensive,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I have an OK shot and really good skating and hockey IQ. I can see plays and make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ivar now lives alone in an apartment in Gothenburg, about 40 minutes south of his family.<\/p>\n
He started to realize how good he was the first time he was invited to the national team and he got onto the ice and still felt like he was one of the best players. He was a pretty good soccer player growing up but dealt with some knee problems and made the full-time switch to hockey (don\u2019t worry, \u201cthat was a long time ago and they\u2019re good now,\u201d he says of his knees).<\/p>\n
With Fr\u00f6lunda, he has worked hard on his board play over the last couple of years, turning his ability on stick lifts, steals and puck protection along the wall into real features of his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s impressive,\u201d Havelid said, using the same word Sj\u00f6strom did. \u201cHe can just play the game. He competes hard, he\u2019s got a good shot, he takes responsibility for what he does out there as well, and he sees the plays and doesn\u2019t play with pressure on him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 Fr\u00f6lunda general manager Fredrik Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m can only call what Ivar Stenberg has done in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-377159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}