Focus On A Thrasher: Tobias Enstrom

I really enjoy doing this blog and the thought of a long summer with no posting left me sad. Not to mention I've got like 8000 (literally) pictures from this season. So to keep myself amused, I've decided to do some weekly features using my pics.

One I wanted to do was Focus On A Thrasher and have a different player each week. I was thinking it would be a good way to show my pics, learn more about each player and keep myself busy this summer.

Who better to start with than our little D-Man, Toby Enstrom. Toby has been representing Sweden in the IIHF World Championships. In a game against Latvia, that ended real quick when Karsums slammed Toby's face into the board. You can see the video here. It IS hard to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAyrL-RXZ48

Toby lost some teeth and had some facial fractures. They performed surgery on him and he is resting at his home in Sweden. The Official Atlanta Thrashers Fanclub has a page you can add your good thoughts for Toby on. You can sign it here, you do NOT have to be a member to wish Toby well. http://www.atlantathrashersfans.org/Toby_Enstrom_Well_Wishes.html

So the basics:

Toby is 24, he was born in Nordingra, Sweden on November 5, 1984. He has three siblings according to Wikipedia. His brothers' names are Tommy and Thomas...interesting. All of the data I could find does show that they are 2 different people. He also has a sister named Tina. All three of his siblings have played hockey or are still playing hockey for various teams within the MODO organization. His sister was part of the Swedish national women's ice hockey team which won the bronze medal at the 2007 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships in Winnipeg, Manitoba.






Toby played for MODO from 2000 until 2006-2007
In 2003, Toby won Elitserien Rookie of the Year.






Toby has competed on the international level, too. He has competed with the World Juniors in 2002(U18), 2003 and 2004 (U20). He's also played for Tre Kronor in the World Championships in 2007.






Achievments

* J20 SuperElit Champion
* Elitserien Rookie of the Year
* Elitserien Champion
* NHL rookie of the month
* NHL YoungStars Game
* NHL All-Rookie Team





Toby was drafted the Atlanta Thrashers in 2003 in the 8th round 239th over all. Toby was invited to join the Atlanta Thrashers in 2006, but wanted to stay in Sweden another year. In 2007 he was signed to a contract with the Atlanta Thrashers. In 2008 he signed a four year contract extension.






Toby is a highly-skilled defenseman who fell some spots in the draft due to his size. He skates well, has good passing ability, vision and shot. He passes a lot. I find myself at the games yelling "SHOOT IT TOBY" a lot. What do I know though?






One of the few weaknesses that "experts" point out is Toby's size. At 5'10'', he's no Valabik. This is thought to limit his 5-on-5 time as he can get lost in the corners. Toby's a tough player though. I call him the Ice Chihuahua because he doesn't seem to know he's 5'10''.

Toby earned 19 points (4 goals and 15 assists) in his last 21 games of this season.

This year Toby played 82 games and scored 5 goals and 27 assists.

He finished the season a +14.

He also had 52 penalty minutes. Toby in the penalty box? What could he do, he's so little??

He also had 1 game winning goal this season.





So that's all of the number and important stuff, how about some fun stuff!

During warm ups, Toby usually stands over by Hainsey and for some reason has his tongue hanging out a lot.

Again with the tongue.

If he moves from there, he goes over by the bench and looks up a lot.







Toby wears #39 because the current captain of MODO is Per Svartvadet. He played for the Thrashers back in the early years and wore #39. He told Toby he should wear it.

When Toby first came to Atlanta, he lived with Moose for a while.

Swedes of a feather...the guys say on the road that the Swedes usually stick together. Tongue hanging out AGAIN.