Stars in Sweden

Saw some real talent in the last few days. Aside from the solid Frölunda players, Markus Näslund, came to town with his Modo team. They also had Dan Hinote on the ice with some other exceptional Swedish talent. Two home grown Modo products; Per Svartvardet and Mattias Weinhandl, both promising players, played well. But the star of the night was Henrik "Henke" Lundquist who shut out one of the best scorers in any league anywhere; Näslund. Frölunda won 3 - 0. Onwards to the championship!

NY Times article revealing

A recent NY Times article mentions two interesting aspects of the current lockout, which now appears to be a done deal.

First Bill Clement says that the NHL players in Sweden don't care about their teams. Actually, he couldn't be more incorrect. Look at Peter Forsberg; even if there was an NHL season he would probably be with Modo trying to win a Swedish Championship. He cares a great deal and in some ways winning a title in his home town means more to him than the Stanley Cup. But even Canadians like Sean Horcoff play their hearts out. He has been brilliant with Mora making this new team a force to be reckoned with.

Clement is just plain wrong.

Secondly, the Swedish League failed to price their games realistically to make it on to television in America. This was dumb. They have a good product and they could make some money next year since there will again be no NHL. So they need to have a new proposal for this year's playoffs and price it so that it gets viewers in North America, and keeps them through next year.

Don't look now, here comes Daniel

Tonight I get to see Daniel Alfredsson skate.

He will be on a line with PJ Axelsson and Samuel Påhlson, Sami Salo and Christian Bäckman will be the defensemen since they tend to send a five man group out on the ice here in Sweden instead of slplitting up the defense and offense in to seperate units. This is a five man unit that could take on and beat any NHL unit, and this is Frölunda's second line!

One million viewers for Swedish hockey show

Here is a link to an article (in swedish) that talks about how many viewers saw the recent broadcast of "Hockey Night"; called "hockeykväll" in Swedish. This is a huge audience for a nation of 9 million, so more than 11% of the population was tuning in on a night when only two teams had played and highlights were limited. Granted the teams that were playing were two of the best, with Frölunda tying the game and strengthening their lead on the Eliteserien. My prediction is that Frölunda will win the championship this year, they look good.

Eliteserien - best league in the world today

With the influx of all many NHL stars, Sweden has the best hockey league in the world right now. The NHL has foolishly decided not to negotiate with its players and the consequences are that many of the players are looking for another place to play. Sweden has turned out to be one of the best places for NHL stars because of the quality of play, excellent arenas, good crowds, and superior organization - which is typical for Sweden. Players such as Peter Forsberg, Marian Hossa, Henrik Zetterberg, Mika Kiprusoff, Jose Theodore, and Kristian Huselius all play here. The rinks are bigger so the players have to skate more, there ismuch less fighting but the players are still tough and chippy. The depth of some of the teams is impressive and the best team, Frölunda has only Swedish and FInnish talent, with many of the players from the area and without NHL experience.