Tkachuk follows through on his bet with Backlund and rocks Sweden gear for his interviews

A lot of hockey fans watching this year’s World Juniors in Buffalo expected a rematch of last year’s gold medal game between Team USA and Team Canada in this year’s final, but those predictions were crushed after Team Sweden defeated Team USA in the semifinals on Thursday night.
 

Two of the best things about watching the World Juniors year after year are getting a glimpse at future NHL stars and watching how current NHL players react to the games.

Calgary Flames teammates Mikael Backlund and Matthew Tkachuk were two players who made a friendly wager during this year’s tournament and it was over the Sweden-USA semifinal game.
 

Since Sweden ruined USA’s chance at repeating as gold medalists, Tkachuk had to rock full Sweden gear when he met with the media on Friday.
 

Backlund represented Sweden in the World Juniors in 2008 and 2009 and collected 8 goals and 14 points in 12 games over the two years, while Tkachuk represented USA in 2016 and collected four goals and 11 points in seven games. 

(H/T Twitter/NHLFlames)