Lightning’s Hedman stars on big stage

CHICAGO – One of the great questions developing in this Stanley Cup final is simple: What the heck were the folks who put together Sweden’s Olympic team thinking last year?

They left off Victor Hedman, the Tampa Bay Lightning behemoth who has become the talk of the series. Seriously. Said he wasn’t good enough to play defense for his country at age 23 after five years of NHL growth.

They took old friend Henrik Tallinder, who was well past his prime. They also took Vancouver’s Alex Edler, Detroit’s Jonathan Ericsson and Chicago’s Johnny Oduya, nice players all of them. But hardly stars like selections such as Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson, Detroit’s Niklas Kronwall or even Arizona’s Oliver…