Playoffs are almost here

You can feel it. the Scandinavium was rocking Saturday. Färjestad and Frölunda played hard and chippy. Frölunda went after Färjestad's best player right from the start, crushing him against the boards. The match was tied at the end of regulation and overtime. Färjestad deserved to win, they played harder. Chara and Souray were brilliant, but nasty too. Chara gat a 5 minute major that let Frolunda back into the game. He was clutching and grabbing and giving guys the face wash. But Frolunda are a tough team and they do not shy away from contact. They hit back and played well. Henke (Lundqvist) was the star stonpping a oint blank shot at one point without his stick! That has got to hurt.

There is some English reporting on the league here - http://www.farjestadsbk.se/ along with Sheldon Souray's diary.

Disbelief

On this side of the Atlantic they still think there is a chance that the NHL will start again. I can't see why that is the case. Last week Timrå had to play without Mika Kiprusov who was told by his agent not to play. The reason was that if he played he would not be covered by insurance if he were hurt and would lose his NHL salary. He isn't going to get a NHL salary this year! The NHL owners do not want to use the current crop of players. Don't these guys get it? The NHL is gone. The way it worked before is over. It is not coming back. They will play with scrubs, college kids, and scabs. The players have compromised completely, they abandoned their position that there be no salary cap. But the owners don't care. They inted to destroy the current relationship and try to re-build the brand along the lines of the MLS.

Listen to what the NHLPA guys are saying:

Ted Saskin, senior director of the union, said: "It's certain that the season will not be resurrected. I can't see anything worse than what they put on the table today."

"I know that today was not good," said Trevor Linden of the Vancouver Canucks, the president of the union. "It was far from not good."

Bill Daly, executive vice president of the N.H.L., said in a written statement: "There remain significant differences that need to be discussed and resolved by the parties. No new proposals were made by either side."

Goodbye NHL

So now it is official. The NHL has collapsed. Perhaps now we will find a league that is truly international and can sustain itself with prudent ownership. But that seems unlikely.

For us in Sweden we have the playoffs to look forward to. Despite the behaviour of some in the league, the interest is still high and the quality of play is strong. It should be a lot of fun.

Swedish Hockey Games

The various European hockey powerhouses (Russia, Czech Republic, Finland, and Sweden) all have tournaments during the season that interrupt the league play. Right now it is Sweden's turn. Sweden Hockey Games start today, read more about it here: http://www.swehockey.se/t2.asp?p=74847 The link is to a Microsoft ASP page with not much info. Sorry.

Transfer window

In Sweden as in other European countries they have what they call "transfer windows." During the period when the window opens, players can be traded, and when the window closes one has to wait until it is re-opened. The transfer window in the Elitserien closed yesterday and we lost some good players. Marian Hossa left Mora, he will be missed. He was very fun to watch, obviously a great talent. Another player who meant a lot to his team, Olli Jokinen, is leaving. Sodertalje will have a hard time replacing him. We also lost Marian Gaborik, though he seemed not to make much impact on the league.

We also gained some players. Daniel "Affe" Alfredsson who has more than a point a game already. Markus Näslund and Adrian Aucoin also joined the league.

The playoffs are about a month away.