Bengt-Åke Gustafsson

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
(Redirected from Bengt-Ake Gustafsson)
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Infobox/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Bengt-Åke Gustafsson
Bengt -Åke.JPG
Born (1958-03-23) March 23, 1958 (age 66)
Karlskoga, SWE
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 185 lb (84 kg; 13 st 3 lb)
Position Centre
Shot Left
Played for Division I
KB Karlskoga
Division 1
Bofors IK
Swedish Elite League
Färjestads BK
National Hockey League
Washington Capitals
World Hockey Association
Edmonton Oilers
Erste Bank Hockey League
Feldkirch VEU
National team  Sweden
NHL Draft 55th overall, 1978
Washington Capitals
Playing career 1973–1999

Bengt-Åke Gustafsson (born March 23, 1958) is a retired Swedish ice hockey player. Gustafsson is a former head coach of the Sweden men's national ice hockey team, a post he held from February 2005 to May 2010. During his American career he was often called Bengt Gustafsson or Gus.

Gustafsson spent nine seasons in the National Hockey League with the Washington Capitals. The Capitals also selected Gustafsson's son, Anton Gustafsson, with the first of their two first-round picks in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

Playing career

Gustafsson started his career playing for Bofors IK in the Swedish third tier league and later transferred to Färjestads BK of the Elitserien. Gustafsson was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the fourth round of the 1978 NHL Amateur Draft. Gustafsson chose to play the 1978–79 season in his homeland Sweden, but he signed with the WHA's Edmonton Oilers in March 1979. Gustafsson made his North American pro debut in the WHA playoffs that spring, picking up a goal and two assists in two games. When the Oilers merged into the NHL, the Capitals reclaimed Gustafsson's rights from Edmonton. In the season of 1986-1987 he played for Bofors IK in the second highest division and still was selected for the national team, which caused some controversy, before playing 2 more NHL seasons. After retiring from the NHL he first returned to Färjestads BK and later spent several years playing in Austria.

In 1987 he received the Svenska Dagbladet gold medal by participating in Sweden's national team, when they won the gold medal in the World Championships. He was involved in the game-tying goal against the Soviet Union in the final round, which lead to victory of the tournament.

Coaching career

Gustafsson has since his active playing career coached several teams, including two national teams.

He has been reported as a "player's coach", listening to and arguing with his players rather than telling them what to do. In a SVT interview he stated: "[Ice] hockey is played on the ice, not behind the bench. As coach I can point things out to them and make them aware of stuff but they are the ones who play the game. As a player I have to confess that I didn't listen that much to what the coach said, and as a coach I don't expect them to do either."

He was criticised for asking various players whom they would like to see in the team and how they wanted to play and for asking players how they would like to see the lines formed. He then went in and adjusted the lines as the tournaments went on. The criticism has been somewhat subdued after his 2006 Olympic and IIHF WC double.

The Olympic and IIHF team only shared eight players. Most of the stars from Olympics was missing. Only Jörgen Jönsson, Kenny Jönsson, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Mikael Samuelsson, Stefan Liv, Ronnie Sundin and Mika Hannula participated in both tournaments.

On May 6, 2011, Gustafsson was named the head coach of Atlant Moscow Oblast of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), becoming the first Swede to be named the head coach of a KHL team.[1][2] However, after a disappointing start of the 2011–12 season for Moscow Oblast, Gustafsson was forced to leave the club on November 3, 2011. The team's then assistant coach Janne Karlsson took over the head-coaching job for Moscow Oblast.[3]

Awards and achievements

  • Named to the 1977 World Junior Championships All-Star Team.
  • Named to the Swedish All-Star Team in 1983.
  • Named to the Swedish All-Star Team in 1987.
  • Awarded Guldhjälmen (Swedish Most Valuable Player) in 1990.
  • Gold medal at the 1991 World Championships.
  • Named to the Alpenliga All-Star Team in 1997.
  • Swedish champion as head coach for Färjestads BK in 2002.
  • Named as Swedish Coach of the Year in 2006.[4]

Records

  • Set a Washington Capitals record (since broken) for points by a rookie with 60 in 1979–80.
  • Scored the fastest goal from the start of a period (5 seconds in third period) vs. the Philadelphia Flyers on January 18, 1983.
  • First coach in history to win the Olympics and the IIHF World Championship in the same year (2006).

Notable events

Career statistics

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1973–74 KB Karlskoga Swe-2 8 1 4 5 0 6 1 1 2 0
1974–75 KB Karlskoga Swe-1 18 4 5 9 2 — — — — —
1975–76 KB Karlskoga Swe-2 1 7 3 10 — — — — —
1976–77 KB Karlskoga Swe-2 22 32 18 50 — — — — —
1977–78 Färjestads BK SEL 32 15 10 25 10 — — — — —
1978–79 Färjestads BK SEL 33 13 11 24 10 3 2 0 2 2
1978–79 Edmonton Oilers WHA — — — — — 2 1 2 3 0
1979–80 Washington Capitals NHL 80 22 38 60 17 — — — — —
1980–81 Washington Capitals NHL 72 21 34 55 26 — — — — —
1981–82 Washington Capitals NHL 70 26 34 60 40 — — — — —
1982–83 Washington Capitals NHL 67 22 42 64 16 4 0 1 1 4
1983–84 Washington Capitals NHL 69 32 43 75 16 5 2 3 5 0
1984–85 Washington Capitals NHL 51 14 29 43 8 5 1 3 4 0
1985–86 Washington Capitals NHL 70 23 52 75 26 — — — — —
1986–87 Bofors IK Swe-3 28 16 26 42 22 — — — — —
1987–88 Washington Capitals NHL 78 18 36 54 29 — — — — —
1988–89 Washington Capitals NHL 72 18 51 69 18 4 2 3 5 6
1989–90 Färjestads BK SEL 37 22 24 46 14 10 4 10 14 18
1990–91 Färjestads BK SEL 37 9 21 30 6 8 3 6 9 2
1991–92 Färjestads BK SEL 35 12 20 32 30 6 2 5 7 2
1992–93 Färjestads BK SEL 40 17 16 33 32 3 0 1 1 0
1993–94 VEU Feldkirch AUS 54 20 43 63 0 — — — — —
1994–95 VEU Feldkirch AUS 41 21 42 63 0 — — — — —
1995–96 VEU Feldkirch AUS 36 20 46 66 14 — — — — —
1996–97 VEU Feldkirch AUS 52 24 54 78 10 — — — — —
1997–98 VEU Feldkirch EHL 6 2 6 8 2 4 1 3 4 2
1997–98 VEU Feldkirch AUS 46 10 30 40 16 — — — — —
1998–99 VEU Feldkirch AUS 2 0 0 0 2 — — — — —
SEL totals 214 88 102 190 96 30 11 22 33 18
AUS totals 231 95 215 310 42 — — — — —
WHA totals — — — — — 2 1 2 3 0
NHL totals 629 196 359 555 196 18 5 10 15 10

International play

Olympic medal record
Men's ice hockey
Gold medal – first place 2006 Turin Team

Bengt-Åke has played in five (1979, 1981, 1983, 1987 and 1991) World Championships with Swedish national team. In both 1987 and 1991 he won the Gold medal.

He also played in the Canada Cup in 1984 and 1987.

In 1992 he represented Sweden in the Olympic Games in Albertville. Fourteen years later he was head coach for the Gold medal winning Swedish team in the Olympics in Torino. In the same year, 2006, he also won gold medal in the Ice Hockey World Championship as head coach.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ " Bengt-Ake Gustafsson appointed new coach of Atlant Mytishchi | Sports.ru in English".
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ (Swedish) Bengt-Åke Gustafsson årets coach
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Bengt-Åke_Gustafsson&oldid=3832673"