Remember that time Lias Andersson chucked his silver medal into the crowd after losing in the World Junior Hockey Championships this past January? Well, it appears that he and some of his teammates will be facing disciplinary action for how they behaved during the medal ceremony. For some reason the IIHF decided to drop the hammer on some young Swedish prospects, suspending Andersson and some others on the team.
The IIHF has sent a news release that not only gave Lias Andersson a four-game suspension, but Axel Jonsson, Jesper Boqvist, Rasmus Dahlin and Olle Eriksson Ek will be suspended for two-games as well.
This is shocking and surprising because it wasn’t even known that the IIHF were looking into this, and it comes months after the incident happened – and I’m guessing many people even forgot Andersson took the medal off. The other players are being disciplined for taking their medals off during the ceremony.
Several Swedish players and coaches suspended for their conduct during #WorldJuniors medal ceremonies. The suspensions will be into effect for the next IIHF junior events, not for the upcoming #IIHFWorlds. Read more here: https://t.co/M38yC0OwVH pic.twitter.com/zGw8hrAgGj
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) May 2, 2018
“In the case of the players, immediately after the silver medal was placed around their necks and while still on the ice, all four players took the medals off and kept them in their hands for the remaining ceremony. Lias Andersson, who had been warned by the Co-Chairman of the championship not to take off the medal when he placed the medal around his neck, nevertheless took it off and tossed it into the stands.”
Has this set a new precedent for receiving medals for games played under the IIHF banner?
