36-year-old Swede-Vorobyov’s secret weapon? The veteran has not played since October and made a scandal in the former club Swedish striker Linus Square – perhaps the most mysterious legionnaire of the current

36-year-old Swede-Vorobyov’s secret weapon? The veteran has not played since October and made a scandal in the former club

Swedish striker Linus saw – Perhaps the most mysterious legionnaire of the current Magnitogorsk. For eight years spent in the KHL, the overall striker with beautiful hands did not become the League star, changing eight teams during this time, but was always in sight and the price of the middle peasants. Scandinav left a particularly pleasant impression in Riga, where he became the best scorer of the local Dynamo twice, and in Nur Sultan, where he was almost the main playmaker of the powerful Barys Andrei Skabelka. However, the chance to play in the top club and win the Gagarin Cup fell only in the 37th year of his life.

This season, a technical striker with a weight near Centner began in his native Jurgorden, in which he received a captain's strip in the summer. But already in October, he suddenly disappeared from the composition of the most titled club of Sweden and a little later became the hero of a loud, but not quite understandable scandal. The thing is that shortly before the mysterious disappearance from the Linus Roster was deprived of the captain’s status, throwing a responsible position to Marcus Sorensen, who returned from the NHL, and the hockey player accused the head coach Barry Smith and the sports director of Yoakim Ericksson of “offensive discrimination”.

The club instantly initiated an external investigation and stated that Smith, in search of an ideal leader, decided to arrange a captain’s rotation, and the hockey player himself went against the current and in an ultimatic uniform demanded to make him a captain on an ongoing basis. He saw through one of the local media rejected all the accusations and said that before the deprivation of captains he was insulted and morally humiliated.

After some time, the scandal died down by itself, but the American coach, in which Yurgorden rolled into the basement of the standings, still lost, and the veteran himself terminated the contract with his native team. And who would have thought that shortly before the New Year, the scandalist from Stockholm would land in the Southern Urals, becoming at that time the sixth legionnaire of Magnitogorsk. Why did the sports director of Magnitogorstsev write out an elderly from Europe and for a long time not the most dynamic foreigner, it seems, no one understood.

That's just because of the rampant Omcron and the protracted Olympic pause, the Square did not have time to play for the Urals in the regular season, and he had to debut for Magnitogorsk immediately in the playoffs. And this despite the fact that the last official match of the Swede played in mid -October. How do you like this?

Surprisingly, Linus scored already in the opening match of the series with Barys and practically did not fall out in the first round, great using his size, decent throw and long, fast arms. However, in the course of a fiery skirmish with the fast vertical Avangard, the viscous and slow Swede quickly sat down and watched hockey from the stands for almost the entire series, with the exception of the second match.

Ilya Vorobyov decided to get him out of the reserve only during the Ural derby with Traktor. But even in it, the Scandinavian looked rather faded, losing in footwork and often losing in martial arts. So in the opening match of the final with CSKA, Widell caught -2 and dropped out of the first link. However, a day later the main showman of this playoff was not afraid to put him in the fourth top three to the much more explosive Arkhip Nekolenko and Yegor Korobkin, and this gave a result. And if in the second game these guys organized the third puck of Magnitogorsk, then in Moscow they sentenced CSKA by scoring the second goal of the guests.

A competent choice of position, rebounding in absolute loneliness after an unpleasant throw from Yegor Yakovlev – and Videll immediately becomes one of the heroes of the third match of the final.

“Can we say that the decision to move Videll to the fourth line is the best move in the final series? Best, I don't know. I hope there will be more, but it turned out well, ”Vorobiev dryly commented on the Swede’s game at a press conference, as if afraid to jinx the most experienced legionnaire. Whether it will be as effective throughout the series, time will tell. But for now, one thing can be said with confidence: the 36-year-old winger definitely did not become a foreign body in Magnitogorsk.