Lundqvist will not dress for Team Sweden's pretournament game against Team Finland at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki on Thursday (Noon ET; ESPN3, SN, TVA Sports). Jacob Markstrom will start and Jhonas Enroth will be the backup, coach Rikard Gronborg said Wednesday.
Gronborg would not say if Lundqvist would play in the pretournament game against Team Finland here at Scandinavium on Saturday (Noon ET; ESPN3, SN, TVA Sports).
Although Lundqvist was dealing with sore ribs at the start of the week, a result of getting hit by a puck during a practice last week, Gronborg's decision to scratch him doesn't appear to be injury related. He has had a net in practice to himself for the past three days and has gotten a lot of work. Markstrom and Enroth have shared the other net.
"Obviously [Lundqvist] is a big cornerstone of the team, so it's more of a situation right now that he gets a lot of repetition in practice here," Gronborg said. "We really challenged him in practice, and obviously he responded to that. We do have a plan. Right now I don't feel it's necessary for me to tell [the media] what the plan is, but we do have a plan. Obviously he's a big cornerstone of our team."
Defenseman Hampus Lindholm and forward Mikael Backlund also will be healthy scratches for Team Sweden on Thursday.
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