Anton Stralman back to 100 percent in World Cup

TORONTO – For the first time since last March, Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman can play competitive hockey and not have to worry about his leg.

There’s no hesitancy and no stress over any type of re-injury for Stralman, who suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right fibula on March 25.

In fact, Stralman’s defense pairing with Victor Hedman has been arguably Sweden’s best all-around duo in the World Cup of Hockey. On Tuesday in a 2-0 win over Finland, Stralman scored the game-winner off a gorgeous behind-the-net feed from Henrik Sedin. The victory moved Sweden to 2-0-0 in the tournament and gave them an important edge in trying to make the World Cup semifinal.

“It feels great. Feeling 100 percent is big just for the ease of mind. You can let go of the foot and all that (BS) that was around it and just go out and just go out and play and do your thing and that’s what you want to feel as a hockey player,” Stralman said. “You don’t want to go out there and feel that something’s not right. You want to go out and play and just try to have fun.”

After Stralman, 30, was hurt, he pushed to come back in time to make a contribution to the Lightning’s playoff run. But he wasn’t in top shape when he returned for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Stralman averaged 20:14 of ice-time per-game and scored one goal in the next six games as Tampa was eliminated.

“My leg was still broken,” Stralman told the Tampa Bay Times recently. “It wasn’t great. It was solid enough to play with, but it’s always hard. You miss two months and jump into a conference finals, it’s not an easy task. Given the circumstances, I gave it all I had.”

Now finally feeling like he did before the injury, Stralman’s defense pairing with Hedman – which is also Tampa’s top D pair – has given Team Sweden both goal scoring and steady defensive play. They’ve each scored goals while also playing important penalty kill minutes as a duo.

“Being around them now for this whole camp and this tournament, you understand how good they are and why they play a lot of minutes down in Tampa, so impressive group,” Henrik Sedin said. “They’ve played together for a long time and they know each other. They know where the other guy is and what they do in certain situations and it’s been impressive to watch and I think Anton is more impressive than people give him credit for.”

Getting scoring contributions from Stralman and Hedman isn’t unexpected but it’s certainly a plus for a team that boasts the best offensive defenseman in the NHL in Erik Karlsson.

“Obviously they’re the key players in our defensive end, but as you can tell, as you said, they scored a goal each here in the first two games in this tournament. That kind of tells you that they’re really smooth skaters. They can fall off an attack and they make an offensive threat, as well,” Swedish coach Rikard Gronborg said. “But me as a coach, we always look at the defensive side, and they’re really solid that way. I think at the end of the day, there’s a defensive pairing that play together a lot, and they showed us, too. So it’s comfortable for us to put them out in any situation.”

On his goal midway through the second period, Stralman slipped into the zone unnoticed as the Sedins played keep away with Team Finland. When he got his chance in front of Tuukka Rask, he buried his opportunity. The goal proved the game winner.

“I was just kind of jumping in a hole there just trying to open up a little bit of space for (Henrik Sedin) coming around the net,” Stralman said. “But nobody really picked me up. The forward just let me go as soon as I saw an opening I was ‘I’m going straight through’ and I know what he can do with the puck so I just kind of followed through and he made a nice play. It was good to see that go in.”

The play of Stralman in this tournament should erase any lingering questions for the Lightning about the possibility of any health issues. This is a good sign for the group, which has Stanley Cup aspirations this year.

“He’s just a really solid defenseman,” Swedish forward Loui Eriksson said. “He has been a player right there for them and their team (in Tampa) and they seem to play really good together with Victor there.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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