Tommy Salo - Swedish ex-hockey player (goalkeeper): career and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

Tommy Salo is a Swedish professional ex-hockey player who played as a goalkeeper. After completing his playing career, he was engaged in coaching, led the Swedish hockey teams from the lower divisions. In the period from 2010 to 2014, he was the general manager of the Leksand hockey club from the SHL league. The Swedish goalkeeper is the 1998 World Champion, two-time World Championship silver medalist (1997 and 2003) and four-time World Championship bronze medalist (1994, 1999, 2001 and 2002). The hockey player is 183 centimeters tall and weighs 83 kilograms.

Tommy Salo - biography

Born February 1, 1971 in Surahammar, Sweden. As a child, like many Swedish guys, he dreamed of becoming a professional hockey player. His idols were such great hockey players as Börje Salming (Sweden), Boris Mikhailov, Valery Kharlamov (both USSR), Wayne Gretzky (Canada) and many others. At the age of eight, he signed up for the local section, where the coach saw the goalkeeper's talent in the guy. At that time, physicalTommy's parameters and characteristics were much different from his peers - he was stronger, more powerful and taller.

From that moment on, Tommy Salo began to train as a goalkeeper, although he dreamed of becoming a striker. In the period from 1989 to 1994 he played for the Swedish club Vasteros.

New York Islanders

In 1994, the young Swedish goalkeeper became a player in the eminent US club New York Islanders. The debut appearance on the ice in the Isles sweater took place on April 11, 1995 in a duel with the Tampa Bay Lightning club. The New York Islanders' first and only win with Tommy Salo in goal came on April 18 against the Quebec Nordis. In his debut season, Tommy's statistics were 90.5% of shots returned (the main goalkeepers of the team Tommy Soderston and Jamie McLennan had an indicator of 90.2 and 87.3%, respectively). He played with the Isles until 1999. In 1995, he received a personal award for "the best newcomer of the season and the most valuable player in the NHL." In 1995 and 1996 he won the Turner Cup.

Edmonton Oilers

In 1999, Tommy Salo accepted an offer from the Canadian club "Edmonton Oilers" and became its goalkeeper. The debut game took place against the Vancouver Canucks. In the first season, he played 13 games, showing a result of 90, 2 reflected shots. For the next four seasons, the Swedish goalkeeper was an indispensable player in the Oilmen's base. For all four years, his result in the percentage of parried blows did not fall below 90%.

The 2003/2004 season was Tommy's last in the NHL. Here he played 44 matches. March 9, 2004 Swedish goalkeeperwas transferred to the Colorado Avalanche club (USA). The debut appearance on the ice for the new club took place on March 14 in a match against the Arizona Coyotes team. Despite Tommy's good performance, he was still the backup goalkeeper for David Ebischer.

From 2004 to 2007, Tommy played for clubs such as MODO and Frölunda (both Sweden). In the last team, he stayed for two whole seasons (2005-2007)

In 2006, he became the vice-champion of the Swedish championship, providing his team with the fight for European cups next season. However, in the 2006/2007 season, he went out on the ice extremely rarely, and at the end of it he announced his retirement from big-time sports. This decision was justified by the fact that Tommy had recently suffered from chronic hip pain. In addition, the Swedish goalkeeper admitted that he was leaving due to lack of motivation.

Swedish hockey player Tommy Salo: Goalkeeper highlights

The most memorable moment of the goalkeeper's career was the victory in the shootout (a free kick on the move on goal, in the common people - a pen alty) in the final stage of the 1994 Winter Olympics against the Canadian team. This triumph brought the first gold medal for the Swedish team in its history. No one has forgotten the missed goal against Tommy Salo from the Belarusian national team in the ¼ stage of the tournament at the 2002 Olympic Games - in the 57th minute of the match (with a 3-3 draw), Belarusian Vladimir Kopatya fired an accurate shot from the middle zone at the Swedes' goal and brought his team a sensational victory. The puck flew at high speedin the face of Tommy (in a protective mask), and then ricocheted into the goal and swept through the goal line. After the missed puck, the Swedes rushed to win back, but there was no time left at all, so they lost.

Coaching

March 5, 2007 goalkeeper Tommy Salo officially announced his retirement from playing. In the same year, he began to coach the Kungelvs club (a team from the 3rd division of Sweden). Here he worked until 2009, after which he headed Oscarshamn.

In 2010 he returned to Kungelvs and a few months later back to Oskarshamn. Then Tommy Salo got the position of general manager at the Leksand club, where he worked until 2014.