Peter Forsberg won two Stanley Cups in his NHL career, but it's one of his two gold medals from the Olympics that is now earning him more notoriety.
As part of an upcoming documentary about his life, Forsberg has suggested that the Swedish Olympic team threw a game against Slovakia in the first round to set up a more favorable matchup in the later stages.
By losing to the Slovaks, the heavily-favored Swedes set up a meeting against Switzerland instead of having to face the tougher Canadian or Russian teams.
"We did all that was needed to win the tournament," says Forsberg, in a translation by the Denver Post of a Swedish report. "I think you can blame the whole system."
Henrik Sedin, who played alongside Forsberg for the Swedish team, denied the allegations in an interview with the Vancouver Sun. He also says that when reading the original quote in Swedish, it doesn't sound like Forsberg is suggesting they tried to lose.
"You have to remember, too, that we were already in the quarterfinals," Sedin pointed out. "It wasn't a big game for us, so to speak. So that might have been part of it."
Whatever their motivation, things certainly worked out for the Swedes. They cruised to a 6-2 win over the Swiss and avoided playing both Canada and Russia en route to a gold medal.
