Dallas Stars defenceman John Kilngberg’s wound from watching his home country lose to Canada in the World Junior Championship is very fresh, and his teammate Alex Radulov had no issue with pouring a little salt on it.
The Stars took care of business today with a 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. Klingberg and Radulov each recorded three points and helped the Dallas stay in the playoff picture in the Western conference. Following the game, the Russian star threw some shade at Klingberg by claiming his anger from Sweden’s loss sparked the defender’s strong performance. Klingberg responded the best way he could, by reminding his friend that Edmonton is in Canada (guess that’s some form of revenge?). Team captain Jamie Benn even decided to get in on the action with a hilarious comment of his own.
It make sense that Benn would speak up, but it’s a bit puzzling to why Radulov would when you consider Canada has caused years of misery for both Sweden and Russia at the World Juniors. In fact, Canada defeated Russia in the gold medal game in both tournaments Radulov played in (2005, 2006).
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Some friendly chirping is always fun, but jokes about the Swedes losing to Canada in the finals are probably starting to get a bit old for the blue-liner. Klingberg leads all defenceman with 39 points in 43 games and clearly doesn’t need a loss by his home country to get him going.
(H/T r/Hockey)
