I guess this process started to some extent last year in Moscow, but I'm kinda' excited about the many NHL players who have turned down Tre Kronor this year. Sweden is and has been in great need to let go of the Sundin, Foppa, Lidas, etc. hysteria. But, as we are a proud hockey nation with recent success (2006), gold is always on everybody's mind to some extent or the other. If not gold, we at least want to be finishing in a reespectable position. Therefore, we grab for the biggeest names first, without consideration for any future direction., at least so it seems.

Tre Kronor is better than last year, for sure, but so are most of the other nations. In 2007 we ended up 4th. Given that the US and the Czechs are icing much stronger teams than last year, and Finland, Russia, and Canada are the premier Gold candidates, I'd say anything beyond a qrtr final must be seen as above expectation.

Any thoughts?

I think it's kind of natural to go for the biggest names first simply because those players have more skills. You know what they're capable of and you know what you can expect, most of the time they also deliver.

Generally (in my experience) people tend to live in the moment and worry about the future when it becomes a real issue/problem.

I'm not going to say anything about how I think Tre Kronor will do this year until I've seen them play a few more games.
It's kind of hard to make guesses about the outcome when they haven't been put to the -*test*-('") yet, this goes for quite a few teams at this point in the tournament.