Pre-season round up - Stockholm is sinking version

Stockholm is Sweden's capital city. They think quite highly of themselves of course and when they lose to their rival Gothenburg it can be a painful event. One of the teams there, Djurgården, has been a powerhouse for years. It has had great players and coaches, even one who was credited with new strategies for an old game, (the torpedo offense.) RIght now Djurgården is on a bit of a high, their football team is in first place and they just gave a good beating to the Gothenburg team IFK last week. But when it comes to hockey, Djurgården has fallen on tough times.

Apparently, according to the Swedish press, Djurgården is in a bit of a financial crisis and has had to cut back severly on players salaries. This means that this year, instead of seeing people like Jose Theodore, they will see some kids fresh up from the farm leagues. Some are saying they may even fall out of the elitserien because their team is so bad. That seems like a stretch, even so this is something of a shocking development for what has been a consistenly good club that has won the championship as recently as 2001.

Djurgården spent too much money last year on locked+out NHL players and failed to attract the fans. They played well in the playoffs, beating Modo to advance. But they ran into a very good Frölunda team and though they fought, they lost to a better goaltender and a more disciplined team. That also cost them playoff revenue. It is a shocking development that a team with the most number of championships (6, the same number as Färjestad) and based in the capital of a great hockey nation, would lose its flagship franchise.