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Mats Sundin calls Russia's QF loss to Finland in Sochi a 'heartless performance'

As the captain of the gold-medal winning Swedish team at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Hockey Hall of Famer Mats Sundin knows a thing or two about what it takes to win at the international level. 

While watching the host Russians bow out of the 2014 tournament in the quarterfinals, the former Toronto Maple Leafs center was less than impressed.

"I was almost disgusted by their performance when they played Finland," Sundin said, via TSN.ca. "I look at the Finnish team and they're missing key players ... that Russian team is stacked with great players and to come out and have that performance they had in the quarterfinals. It was an absolutely heartless performance."

Sundin added "it was very disappointing and I don't think it's very good for hockey either to have them out of their home tournament. You wonder when you have Putin in the stands on home ice and you can't get heart out of these guys? What's going to bring it out? I don't know."

The 43-year-old cited pressure as Russia's undoing in Sochi, but qualified that by saying "even though you're nervous or you have a lot of pressure built up, you can always still get into the motions and show that you're actually trying."

In regards to Sunday's gold medal final between Canada and his native Sweden, Sundin had this to say: "I'll hold Canada as the favourites to win the gold medal, but if you have [Henrik] Lundqvist playing an enormous game in the final, there's a shot. But it's a long shot for sure."

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