SHL/Allsvenskan 2022-2023

[PuckPoise]

No, it's a vital part of Swedish sports. Taking it away would kill a lot of interest. I'd argue more teams should be promoted and relegated each season, along with some redistribution of the TV-money to take away the fear of being relegated and breathe more life into the league system.

There's no doubt it is hurting player development in my mind. But then again the competition is to crown the Swedish champion not produce players for others.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

No, it's a vital part of Swedish sports. Taking it away would kill a lot of interest. I'd argue more teams should be promoted and relegated each season, along with some redistribution of the TV-money to take away the fear of being relegated and breathe more life into the league system.

Even though Brynäs, my favourite team, are in clear danger of being relegated, I absolutely agree with the bolded part. I liked the old round robin format, where the top four teams in Allsvenskan competed against the bottom two SHL/Elitserien teams for two spots in the highest division. The current format makes it very hard to get promoted from Allsvenskan.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Montén new coach for HV71

Avslöjar: Montén klar för HV71

HV71 har hittat sin nya huvudtränare. Enligt uppgifter till Sportbladet har Juniorkronornas tidigare förbundskapten Tomas Montén, 45, skrivit på ett långtidskon

www.aftonbladet.se

hahahaaha

 

[Brunkmeister]

Montén new coach for HV71

Avslöjar: Montén klar för HV71

HV71 har hittat sin nya huvudtränare. Enligt uppgifter till Sportbladet har Juniorkronornas tidigare förbundskapten Tomas Montén, 45, skrivit på ett långtidskon

www.aftonbladet.se

Reading this i’m even more thankful for having Mitell as a coach for my team.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Thank you so much for the in-detail explanation, couldn't ask for better than that, wow! Glad to hear there is some positivity surrounding the team, would really love to see them in a better place with possibility of watching them of course as a bonus haha.

Yes, I'm from Turkey. In fact, the other day, the stream I had was from a German channel indeed. However, I remember watching from CMore a couple of weeks ago as well. Around a decade ago I had a friend from Gävle. Some games were free on the internet and we used to watch them together. It was great fun. I guess this is no longer the case. Despite it being prohibitively expensive by Turkish standards, I even tried to get subscription on CMore but nah, not available abroad. Years ago I had bought a single game when it was working but even for this I needed someone living in Sweden as they accepted payments only through cards issued by Swedish banks... Kinda feels like they are happy enough with the local audience and couldn't care less about international fans.

I feel ya. I would consider Cmore (or currently, Telia Play) prohibitively expensive personally as well, had it not been for me being able to share the cost with a few friends and us mostly being able to work around the concurrent log-ons/stream limits and so on. The subscription fees are absolutely eye gouging. I guess it’s worth it if you’re going to watch every game of your favorite team, but I feel like €60+ per month has me reevaluating the meaning of life and fandom.

Ugh I hate classic clubs get demoted, is promotion/demotion hurting swedish hockey?

I agree with the sentiment regarding classic clubs, and you pose a valid question, but absolutely not.

@Aahlstroem said it well, there are discussions to be had concerning the distribution of money from broadcasting rights between the SHL and Hockeyallsvenskan, and other things like that.

In addition to his points, I’d like to add that us fans fought loudly against the SHL when they were making moves and having discussions against our interests. There were years of talk concerning a Swedish KHL team (AIK and Färjestad I seem to recall were considered for “defection”, there was the Stockholm Vikings (or whatever they were supposed to be named) fiasco, and I guess the SHL were afraid of the league losing quality and traction among viewers while competing with other European leagues. The SHL was baiting fans with talk of expanding the league (which most seem to be in favor of), but with the implication of closing the league and promoting “wild card”-teams based on finances, marketability and fanbase (ie. Djurgården and Malmö, who were planted in Hockeyallsvenskan, to the SHL’s dismay), rather than them deserving promotion through winning. They hailed Liiga as a paragon of what the SHL could be, trying to fool us into believing we’d still retain upwards mobility for successful teams in the lower divisions, when in actuality Liiga hadn’t had a team promoted from Mestis in over a decade. The SHL relented somewhat and we got an expansion and a downgraded but still quite fair SHL qualifier, which guaranteed promotion, but not before completely screwing Karlskrona over with stupidly rigid demands on what they needed to do deserve being in the SHL following promotion.

I think the last few years have proven that the league might be due for another expansion. Björklöven and MoDo for example have both pretty consistently been top teams in the HA, but screwed by a pandemic and wealthy legacy SHL clubs HV71 and (well, it remains to be seen) Djurgården dropping out and turning around in a season. And with Brynäs (or Malmö) facing demotion, it just seems like there’s more than 14 SHL quality teams in Sweden, and several classic clubs with crazed fanbases stuck in tough spots.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

I think the last few years have proven that the league might be due for another expansion. Björklöven and MoDo for example have both pretty consistently been top teams in the HA, but screwed by a pandemic and wealthy legacy SHL clubs HV71 and (well, it remains to be seen) Djurgården dropping out and turning around in a season. And with Brynäs (or Malmö) facing demotion, it just seems like there’s more than 14 SHL quality teams in Sweden, and several classic clubs with crazed fanbases stuck in tough spots.

I am absolutely in favour of expanding SHL to somewhere between 16 and 20 teams. There are so many good teams that have been stuck in the top five of Hockeyallsvenskan for quite a few years and I would love to see all of MoDo, Björklöven, Djurgården and BIK in the highest divison. Maybe you can make it so that all teams that do not make the playoffs (skip the play-in format) have to face off against the top teams of Hockeyallsvenskan in a round robin tournament. Then you would have a larger league and ensure that there is every possibility of moving between the top two leagues. Also, then the season does not end for the teams that do not make the play-offs, which is what the play-in format was alledgedly supposed to remedy.

I would like to add though, as a supporter of a classic team: there is nothing worse for competitive sports teams than becoming complacent, which is exactly what classic teams become as soon as they get protected. If a classic team is bad, then it deserves to be relegated. I think that's a major weakness of the Finnish Liiga.

 

[Aahlstroem]

While I'm intrigued by the idea of an expanded SHL I wonder where that would leave Hockeyallsvenskan. Are there enough good teams in HockeyEttan to fill the void of those that would get promoted? Or would the league become less competitive and interesting?

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

I think we should avoid overexpansion, but it seems reasonable to expand by two teams soon.

I started playing around with the concept of an expansion that would also expand the play-in and make it a complete playoff round, best of 7 with all playoff teams. The reasoning behind this would be to make the play-in less “gimmicky” or unfair, since some are kind of critical to the play-in for these reasons. My idea was, with 16 teams we could have a North/South conference system where North faces North four times during the regular season, and North faces South only twice, and vice versa. We would then shorten the regular season by a few rounds (to 44, in a 16 team league), and instead add exciting playoff matches.

I’m apparently not that strong with maths so it took way too long for me to realize we’ll need 16 playoff teams in order to expand the playoffs the way I hoped, which makes the concept ridiculous in a league with less than at least 19 teams.

But a couple of thoughts I have regarding the league format and different proposals I’ve read from fans etc:

1. “The bottom team should automatically be relegated”

There are a lot of opinions floating around concerning relegation play, and a common one is that the bottom team should be demoted, plain and simple, and perhaps swap places with the top team in the HA, whereas the second to last team gets a playoff for their continued existence.

While not unfair in theory, I’m actually not in favor of the pretty popular idea that the bottom team should automatically be demoted, as it often probably translates into one team getting buried too deep with no chance to recover, and a bunch of virtually meaningless games awaiting demotion. You might say Malmö played meaningless games to finish the regular season in the current format as well, but I disagree: they took those games to prepare for relegation play, and the gravity of the situation seemed to whip up some resilience and fight in them, making their last stretch enticing to follow.

I’m not necessarily in favor of the current relegation format though. I do think it’s in place for a few reasons: while it never happened (correct me if I’m wrong), the Kvalserien format meant that two SHL teams could have been relegated at once. If I remember correctly, there was something in between the old Kvalserien format and the current playoffs between the bottom teams, that tried but (thankfully) somewhat failed to benefit the SHL teams playing relegation games against Allsvenskan teams, by giving them easier schedules. The current format is effectively a compromise between the SHL who wants to safeguard the interests of SHL clubs, and the fans who wanted to secure relegation/promotion. The current format doesn’t give undue advantages to the SHL teams, but it’s perhaps a bit less interesting than the craziness of Kvalserien where SHL teams with reasonably stable systems in place all of a sudden were pitted against gung-ho Allsvenskan teams playing happy go lucky hockey.

I do get that it’s frustrating for fans of HA teams that your team may stay at the top for years and have consistently great regular seasons albeit with just a slim chance of promotion regardless, but playoffs crowning champions isn’t foreign to hockey at this point, and it brings more life to the regular season knowing that even at the darkest times your team still needs to try to turn around and prepare for important games. I don’t think it’ll happen again, but having two SHL spots rather than one to play for would be my most preferred format.

2. Get rid of the play-in: 1-8 makes the quarterfinals.

I wasn’t a fan of the play-in at conception, and I can see why people think it’s unfair/unnecessary to give the 10th seed a chance and force the 7th seed to play additional games to qualify for the real playoffs. The play-in also does lead to some ridiculous things like last year when Cmore continued showing Rodrigo Abols’ impressive “playoff” scoring lead which was entirely him going nuts against a Brynäs team with very little business being in the playoffs to begin with. I assure you, I didn’t have a change of heart simply because Luleå finished 10th this season though: I would have been fine without playoffs following this season. But I do think that the play-in is good and necessary for the same reason that I don’t want automatic relegation for the bottom team: you may discuss its fairness, but it does keep the regular season interesting for longer.

People still say that there’s a regular season lull or “lunk”, but I don’t feel it’s anything close to what it used to be some years ago. Most SHL teams have been competitive to a pretty good extent for the past few years in my opinion, even bad teams have been pretty routinely able to steal points from top teams, or simply bad matchups for them, and that’s more than you could say back in the early to mid 2010s imo. I think the lull has been heavily reduced, and the fights to finish top-6, top-10, and to avoid relegation are good for interest in the regular season. Having a four team no-man’s land would simply equate more meaningless regular season games.

 

[Hockeyfrilla]

Congrats @Eye of Ra

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

Well, there it is. Brynäs is out. Congratulations to Malmö, they were completely focused and played really well and consistently.

As a Brynäs supporter, it hurts, but I truly think this is what is best for the organisation. The opportunity for a restart. Not just so that they can stop being a boy's club patting each other on the back and remembering the glory days. But with regards to the entire purpose of the organisation. Some Gävle-based journalist said that Brynäs being relegated would be bad for the women's team and the non-profit activities. That to me said it all. If you want to win and be a professional hockey team, you can't treat your team as a cash cow to finance your side projects. You have to properly re-invest in the team. Brynäs will really need to re-evaluate what their purpose is and focus if they want to get up again.

 

[Aahlstroem]

Werners svar: ”Jag är jävligt sugen på mer hockey och Löven”

GÄVLE. Adam Werner formtoppade säsongen när det behövdes som mest och hjälpte sitt eget lag Malmö Redhawks kvar i SHL. Nu kan säsongen fortsätta - i det allsvenska slutspelet. – Jag kommer kontakta honom här i dagarna, säger Björklövens sportchef Per Kenttä. – Jag är i bra form och jävligt sugen...

www.expressen.se

Could this spark some controversy? Malmö might strengthen Björklöven late into the season.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Werners svar: ”Jag är jävligt sugen på mer hockey och Löven”

GÄVLE. Adam Werner formtoppade säsongen när det behövdes som mest och hjälpte sitt eget lag Malmö Redhawks kvar i SHL. Nu kan säsongen fortsätta - i det allsvenska slutspelet. – Jag kommer kontakta honom här i dagarna, säger Björklövens sportchef Per Kenttä. – Jag är i bra form och jävligt sugen...

www.expressen.se

Could this spark some controversy? Malmö might strengthen Björklöven late into the season.

wtf

Congrats @Eye of Ra

thanks. but i always was more of a MFF and team Sweden fan than MIF fan.

Well, there it is. Brynäs is out. Congratulations to Malmö, they were completely focused and played really well and consistently.

As a Brynäs supporter, it hurts, but I truly think this is what is best for the organisation. The opportunity for a restart. Not just so that they can stop being a boy's club patting each other on the back and remembering the glory days. But with regards to the entire purpose of the organisation. Some Gävle-based journalist said that Brynäs being relegated would be bad for the women's team and the non-profit activities. That to me said it all. If you want to win and be a professional hockey team, you can't treat your team as a cash cow to finance your side projects. You have to properly re-invest in the team. Brynäs will really need to re-evaluate what their purpose is and focus if they want to get up again.

Dont worry. Brynäs will get back to SHL again. Classic club with great juniors.

 

[theslatcher]

Werners svar: ”Jag är jävligt sugen på mer hockey och Löven”

GÄVLE. Adam Werner formtoppade säsongen när det behövdes som mest och hjälpte sitt eget lag Malmö Redhawks kvar i SHL. Nu kan säsongen fortsätta - i det allsvenska slutspelet. – Jag kommer kontakta honom här i dagarna, säger Björklövens sportchef Per Kenttä. – Jag är i bra form och jävligt sugen...

www.expressen.se

Could this spark some controversy? Malmö might strengthen Björklöven late into the season.

Same thing happened last year, register an extra goalie that plays in the SHL(Adam Åhman pops to mind). Can't say I'm a fan.

However, idk if Björklöven will play him, their goalie has been hot all season.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Some Gävle-based journalist said that Brynäs being relegated would be bad for the women's team and the non-profit activities. That to me said it all. If you want to win and be a professional hockey team, you can't treat your team as a cash cow to finance your side projects. You have to properly re-invest in the team.

Yeah, Brynäs crashes out because they drained their men’s team to invest into the women’s team

How much is Brynäs still paying coaches and managers that aren’t even with the organization because they were fired? How much does it add up to over the last six years?

I’m not at all happy Brynäs were relegated, but they’ve got a ton of issues.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

Yeah, Brynäs crashes out because they drained their men’s team to invest into the women’s team

How much is Brynäs still paying coaches and managers that aren’t even with the organization because they were fired? How much does it add up to over the last six years?

I’m not at all happy Brynäs were relegated, but they’ve got a ton of issues.

I did not say that that was the only issue. I used it as an example to show their lack of focus. But you are correct, the salaries that you mentioned are an issue as well and the problems within the organisation are numerous. Hiring completely inexperienced GMs to long-term and expensive deals didn't help either.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

I did not say that that was the only issue. I used it as an example to show their lack of focus. But you are correct, the salaries that you mentioned are an issue as well and the problems within the organisation are numerous. Hiring completely inexperienced GMs to long-term and expensive deals didn't help either.

Brynäs hasn’t done anything with confidence and trust for the last few years. I imagine they’ve had to pay for this fact: you can’t join their organization in a capacity of leadership with a plan with any type of longevity, because if it’s not paying dividends immediately you’re toast.

Mikko Manner and Peter Andersson were both coaches with merits who seemed well equipped to put the team in respectable territory. Manner in particular was a case where the organization worked towards his system, whereas Andersson got a shoddily constructed roster and was expected to work his Malmö magic immediately. The cases aren’t entirely equatable, but both times it felt Brynäs would rather leave someone out to dry than commit to something long term and weather out the storm of perceived underperformance. I feel with every well run organization in the SHL of late, you have to commit to an idea, and trust your guys for the long haul, adding and subtracting along those lines with the goal of becoming competitive. But Brynäs has ultimately half-assed everything for the last years, and kept poison in their ranks throughout.

I hate that it’s come to this, as my best friends in hockey outside of my Luleå fellows are Brynäs fans and it’s one of the finest and most important hockey clubs in Sweden historically, but there’s just years of incredibly bad management of this club that led to this. It’s not the side projects or whatnot, it’s a lack of decisiveness when absolutely needed.

 

[Aaaarrgghh]

Brynäs hasn’t done anything with confidence and trust for the last few years. I imagine they’ve had to pay for this fact: you can’t join their organization in a capacity of leadership with a plan with any type of longevity, because if it’s not paying dividends immediately you’re toast.

Mikko Manner and Peter Andersson were both coaches with merits who seemed well equipped to put the team in respectable territory. Manner in particular was a case where the organization worked towards his system, whereas Andersson got a shoddily constructed roster and was expected to work his Malmö magic immediately. The cases aren’t entirely equatable, but both times it felt Brynäs would rather leave someone out to dry than commit to something long term and weather out the storm of perceived underperformance. I feel with every well run organization in the SHL of late, you have to commit to an idea, and trust your guys for the long haul, adding and subtracting along those lines with the goal of becoming competitive. But Brynäs has ultimately half-assed everything for the last years, and kept poison in their ranks throughout.

I hate that it’s come to this, as my best friends in hockey outside of my Luleå fellows are Brynäs fans and it’s one of the finest and most important hockey clubs in Sweden historically, but there’s just years of incredibly bad management of this club that led to this. It’s not the side projects or whatnot, it’s a lack of decisiveness when absolutely needed.

Yeah, it's clear that Brynäs need to find a results-oriented mentality and find ways to allow their coaches to get the results. My point was that it's easier to do that if you focus the entire organisation on trying to be the best hockey team in Sweden. As an example, just look at the Brynäs YouTube page compared to Färjestad's. The latter is all hockey. The former only has uploaded videos related to "En bra start" for the past two months. To me, this, together with the indecisiveness that you laid out very well here (that Andersson business still makes me furious), paints a picture of an organisation that is more focused on the brand than the on-ice product. That's when you get the half-assery you described. It's easier to blame the coach when the brand is thought to be perfect. So I'd say that these are symptoms of the same disease.

By the way, on that note, just compare Brynäs' record since the inception of Elitserien/SHL to Färjestad's. The consistensy of Färjestad really is amazing (they have been lower than 8th once since 1976) and I never get the feeling that Färjestad ignore the on-ice product by sitting and counting the banners in the rafters like Brynäs have done.

 

[Howe Elbows 9]

Junior scoring leaders in the 2023 SHL playoffs;

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	ATOI
Adam Engström (D)	Rögle	8	3	2	5	13:52
Leo Carlsson	Örebro	5	0	5	5	14:57
Lucas Forsell	Färjestad	5	2	2	4	13:56
Victor Stjernborg	Växjö	5	0	3	3	11:36
Marco Kasper	Rögle	8	0	3	3	16:50
Lian Bichsel (D)	Leksand	3	1	0	1	17:23
Milton Oscarson*	Örebro	5	1	0	1	12:50
Isac Born	Frölunda	4	0	1	1	4:50

* Technically, Oscarson turned 20 years old on February 18.

 

[hansomreiste]

How did Vaxjö become one of the best teams in the SHL? When I first got into this thanks to my friend from Gävle they were not even in top league (Elitserian back then IIRC?) yet they seem to be consistently one of the best teams in last 10 years or so. Just looked it up and saw they were founded in 1997. Vaxjö itself seems to be a small town with no strong industry or anything to support a major ice hockey club. What is their story? Is there any good article or work I can read/watch about them?

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

How did Vaxjö become one of the best teams in the SHL? When I first got into this thanks to my friend from Gävle they were not even in top league (Elitserian back then IIRC?) yet they seem to be consistently one of the best teams in last 10 years or so. Just looked it up and saw they were founded in 1997. Vaxjö itself seems to be a small town with no strong industry or anything to support a major ice hockey club. What is their story? Is there any good article or work I can read/watch about them?

I’ll base my answer on my very biased perceptions and memory here.

A lot of fans dislike or frown upon Växjö Lakers for being a relatively new, “non-classic” team who bought their success (as opposed to getting it by developing talent), and specifically that they’ve had success with a lot of North American mercenaries. They’re often called “plastic” for their lack of history as a club or a hockey town. I don’t remember the story of their journey from forming in 1997 to making the SHL and becoming a powerhouse, but I think the perception in many fans’ minds is that some rich people wanted hockey in Växjö and they paid their way to the SHL. Of course there’s more nuance to it, and there was hockey in Växjö long before 1997, but never much success and I wonder if the reasoning behind funding a professional hockey team in a historical black hole of hockey could be that Växjö is a city who could support professional hockey in southern Småland and its vicinity, where there’s indeed several small, hockey crazed towns such as Tingsryd, Ljungby, and Nybro, who perhaps could provide Växjö with talent.

It gets ridiculous at points trying to put down teams for buying players from the outside and so on, since the league is fully professionalized and has been for quite some time now. You do however respect it when teams gain success with homegrown talent and local kids playing for them, and Växjö has been the antithesis of this, as opposed to Skellefteå for instance where a lot of their star players for the last decade have been from the region.

But as to how and why they got good, I’d say it’s as simple as good scouting, good coaching, good goaltending. They’ve been remarkably good at acquiring “rentals”: they get players there for a year or two and they just thrive. I think their hockey of the last few years is just extremely dull however, but they are and have been a great defensive team. The 2021 finals were almost unwatchable due to how suffocating they were. The previous championship run was more fun though, because of Elias Pettersson’s dominance.

 

[Aahlstroem]

I'd add that they've had favorable terms from the city of Växjö. Getting a loan to build their arena for example, instead of the city building it and having the hockey team renting it.

And to add to why they're frowned upon, their owner structure is kinda bypassing the 51%-rule.

 

[PensFan101]

How did Vaxjö become one of the best teams in the SHL? When I first got into this thanks to my friend from Gävle they were not even in top league (Elitserian back then IIRC?) yet they seem to be consistently one of the best teams in last 10 years or so. Just looked it up and saw they were founded in 1997. Vaxjö itself seems to be a small town with no strong industry or anything to support a major ice hockey club. What is their story? Is there any good article or work I can read/watch about them?

Lived in Vaxjo 2013-2014 during their first trip to the playoffs and before their first championship. In addition to the above and the not subtle bypassing of 50+1, Vaxjo is also (and please correct me if I'm wrong) the fastest growing city in Sweden, or has been amongst the fastest growing for some time now. There's been a lot of money pouring into the city in the last 15 years and the increase in big apartment/condo complexes near the arena are proof of that.

There's also the university where students can reach the arena by bike or bus pretty easily, and to Vaxjo's credit a pretty solid group of hardcore fans that have been there as they've risen up the series ladder. I'd say the games (and certainly the merch) are on the pricey ends for a student budget, but Vaxjo is, again, a growing and affluent city.

Their junior teams still seem like a mishmash of a lot of different areas (they've had a lot of success recruiting from Denmark), and bigger clubs like HV and Frolunda seem to scoop up the better talents in Smaland.

And their nickname has been Vaxköp for a while now (köp, or köpa, is to buy in Sweden), and it's fairly well earned.

 

[hansomreiste]

Thank you very much guys for the explanations, you definitely made the playoffs more entertaining for me. A Turkish friend of mine had lived in Vaxjö before and she never liked the place haha, this is why I was interested in finding out how they grew up to become one of the best hockey towns in Sweden. What are you predictions for semi-finals and eventual winners? Despite not knowing much about how "good" teams are I have to say I'm surprised Örebro are up two games against Hell-left-yo. As my beloved Lulea is out, I'm kinda rooting for Örebro to win it all at this point... Though Vaxjö look dangerous as ever as far as I've been able to watch - nothing in Skelleftea-Örebro series so far as it has clashed with Ak Bars-Avangard in KHL.

 

[Aahlstroem]

Thank you very much guys for the explanations, you definitely made the playoffs more entertaining for me. A Turkish friend of mine had lived in Vaxjö before and she never liked the place haha, this is why I was interested in finding out how they grew up to become one of the best hockey towns in Sweden. What are you predictions for semi-finals and eventual winners? Despite not knowing much about how "good" teams are I have to say I'm surprised Örebro are up two games against Hell-left-yo. As my beloved Lulea is out, I'm kinda rooting for Örebro to win it all at this point... Though Vaxjö look dangerous as ever as far as I've been able to watch - nothing in Skelleftea-Örebro series so far as it has clashed with Ak Bars-Avangard in KHL.

I'm surprised that Örebro got 2-0 on Skellefteå as well. I didn't have much hope for my Frölunda going into the playoffs, but after 4-3 om Färjestad and how we've been competing with Växjö these first two games I'd say it's rather open. Any team could go all the way.

And being a Luleå supporter you should root for all remaining teams to lose I think
Frölunda and Luleå simply don't like each other from several hard fought playoff series.
Skellefteå and Luleå are regional rivals.
The very commercial Växjö is kind of an anti-thesis to the more supporter-driven Luleå.
Between Örebro and Luleå there's been some sensitive transfers where Örebro has "stolen" prominent Luleå players like Emil Larsson and Robin Kovacs.

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Växjö and Skellefteå have both been less convincing than expected in the playoffs. The championship is truly up for grabs, it seems.

And being a Luleå supporter you should root for all remaining teams to lose I think
Frölunda and Luleå simply don't like each other from several hard fought playoff series.
Skellefteå and Luleå are regional rivals.
The very commercial Växjö is kind of an anti-thesis to the more supporter-driven Luleå.
Between Örebro and Luleå there's been some sensitive transfers where Örebro has "stolen" prominent Luleå players like Emil Larsson and Robin Kovacs.

Pretty well put, besides Örebro — despite our shared history — being mostly an afterthought, haha.

Once Luleå has been eliminated, during any given playoff run, I’ve figured who I will root for from different angles.

I’ve often found myself rooting for — or at least take some pride in — my team losing to the eventual champions. Despite the antipathy, I know Frölunda has received this benefit from me. There was the Fagervall-coached, super physical Luleå team of big hulking grinders who at least stole a couple of semifinal games from the 2016 champions, for instance.

Skellefteå has almost always been impossible to root for. As our closest geographical rival, it’s very difficult to grant them the success they’ve had over the last decade. I’ve thus generally rooted for Växjö or Frölunda against them. However, following this year’s quarterfinals, I feel unable to root for the team that beat us nor to root against generally more hated rivals than the plastic Växjö team: I really don’t like their hockey utterly bereft of personality, and I can’t wish them well. That was the first time I felt that I’d rather see Skellefteå win, my mindset following the quarterfinals still being that this would be either theirs or Växjö’s year. Skellefteå and Frölunda’s brands of hockey are more fun to watch than Växjö, and they have some characters on their rosters. Feels kind of weird saying it, but I could grant Joel Lundqvist a final trophy. I did feel bad for him for a brief second after last year’s semifinals, and at this point I feel like yeah, good he got another go. And Skellefteå has low-key become kind of like Luleå in the sense that they’ve become more known for not getting it done and losing playoff series as favorites, than for their powerhouse teams, which is good. I also appreciate Frölunda for sending Färjestad on summer vacation, with Lennström a wonky loser who cost them game 7.

As for Örebro: I don’t know, would be kind of a curious upset. Haven’t watched them this playoff run, but they also play dull, trapping hockey as far as I am concerned. We beat them in five last year, but they were frustrating to play against. Until it was over, there was just a tiny sense of relief following each win, as opposed to celebration, because you knew to expect the same shit to play out next game with them possibly sneaking out a win from a tight box and two lucky counterattacks.

The one game they stole was decided by an Emil Larsson goal, that should have been denied since he blatantly tripped up the puck carrier to win the puck and get to the net. He soared up the list of punchable faces in the SHL (#1: Theodor Lennström) following that series, but I grant him that he’s become a pretty useful grinder/rucksack/pest with some scoring upside and clutchness since leaving Luleå, where he had one big goal-scoring season that made him a candidate for most overrated player in the league. I thought he was the third best player on his line, after Lundeström and Einar Emanuelsson, and 8 out of his 23 goals were scored on an extremely poor Karlskrona team, plus 4 against Mora: half his scoring came versus the bottom feeders, otherwise he was a wonky third wheel to Lundeström’s mature two-way game and playmaking, and Einar’s creativity.

There was almost zero attention paid to Larsson when the news came down that he and Kovacs had signed with them, since he was such a non-factor on that roster by that time. Kovacs, on the other hand, caused a nasty uproar. We’ve got some stupid-ass fans within our ranks. Wasn’t that the season where covid cancelled the playoffs? Despite rolling through the regular season, we were pretty blunt up front, so it felt like we needed him. It was very disappointing he was going to leave, but especially disappointing that some mouth breathers could harass the guy and the club into forcing a trade in the middle of a big season for us, where consistent scoring was something of the remaining issue. In the end, we did fine scoring by commuttee without either player, and we got Komarek home who solved our power play.

That being said, yeah, no. Niklas Eriksson/Örebro seem to glance a lot at Luleå for building rosters, and they’re boring, but I don’t think too much of them as opposed to others. Don’t know what I would think of them winning it all.