It Was Sweden's Week for Empty-Net Goals

The old Viking word for it was hamingja.

Luck. Pure and simple.

They considered it to be an essential element of self.

It was an either you got it or you don't kinda belief, and one that could be transmitted down the family tree. So it was good to have hamingja or be around someone who did.

The Nashville Predators' Filip Forsberg and the Swedish national football team's Ola Toivonen definitely have hamingja in their DNA, and they confirmed it this past week.

First, Forsberg sealed the deal against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Stanley Cup Game 4 after the Pens pulled their goalie in a late-game attempt to make up ground quickly:

Dude's got a future in curling when his hockey days are done.

That was a decent warm-up for Toivonen, whose embrace of opportunity had an even more dramatic effect.

There he was, roaming midfield as assigned, likely resigned to the fact that Sweden would settle for a 1-1 draw against France in Group A qualifying play for the 2018 World Cup. The match was in stoppage time when, inexplicably, Les Bleus 'keeper Hugo Lloris decided to be a fullback.

Dude's not a fullback.

Significant boost, indeed.

With four matches left for each team to play, the French will have three at home, the Dutch two, and the Swedes one.

Expect the Netherlands to attack in them, France to be patient, and Sweden to obstruct.

And it's entirely possible the point swing caused by Lloris' misplaced sense of adventure will figure prominently in who gets to Russia in 2018.