Mika Zibanejad's showing at the 2025 IIHF Men's World Championship proves he deserves to be a New York Ranger.
Throughout the 2024-25 National Hockey League season, Zibanejad received his fair share of criticism due to a perceived lack of production. But on Sunday, his home country of Sweden captured a 6-2 win over Denmark to earn the bronze medal. To make things better for Zibanejad — he scored the final goal for his team.
“It was obviously tough, it is a tough reset from yesterday after being so disappointing,” Zibanejad said. “Just the way we played yesterday, it wasn’t hard to have a mindset of we have to play better and we owe it to ourselves. I thought we ended in the best way we could with the situation being.”
Zibanejad, who is from Huddinge, Sweden, even got the opportunity to play in this world tournament in front of hometown fans. For his fans — it's nice to see him have a sentimental experience he can enjoy after the magnitude of hate he endured this year.
Additionally, he appeared to be more relaxed and himself both on and off the ice while playing for his home country which resulted in him being tied for fifth in scoring for Sweden and tied for ninth in the tournament with five goals.
The unfair Zibanejad hate
There's no shortage of examples for the hate Zibanejad endured, across any social media platform.
This is because he faced a significant drop in his offensive production, particularly at 5-on-5 and also showed a lack of effort on the backcheck and an unfortunate habit of poor positioning in the defensive zone.
But, despite his contributions to the fact that the Rangers made NHL infamy in not qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs the very year after winning the Presidents' Trophy — Zibanejad still has his positives.
For one, his on-ice pairing and off-ice bromance with teammate Chris Kreider is a joy to watch for most Blueshirt fans.
Plus, he still managed to finish as the third team leader for the Rangers this year with 62 points across 42 assists and 20 goals. And as previously mentioned he now holds a new bronze medal.
“It’s going to be a memory with me for a lifetime,” Zibanejad said about playing in Stockholm, Sweden for the World Championship. “Even though we didn’t win gold, we got the bronze medal. It’s a medal and we got to do it in front of our families, our friends, our fans.
It's my sincere hope that this bronze medal shows to those Blueshirt naysayers that the team needs Zibanejad. They need a player of his age and experience.
Did he have a bad year? Sure, but so did the entire franchise as a whole.
“People that might have never watched hockey before, hopefully got some more hockey fans in Sweden from it. It’s a memory that I’ll bring with me for a very long time," Zibanejad also said.