Parity

After firing their coach and hiring a coach known as an "old timer", Frölunda has gone on a tear. In fact the entire league is looking a little more rational. Timrå no longer has such a big lead, Linköping and HV 71 are near the top as is Färjestad. Ergo, the main conclusion to draw this year is - parity.

The league has amazing parity, only about 25 points separate the top from the bottom, and nearly any team can beat any other. In Frölundas five game winning streak they beat the first place team, the second place team as well as a bunch spread throughout the table. While the teams that were expected to win are now finally winning regularly, a couple of teams have been surprisingly good. Like Timrå who has had lots of good goaltending, and Skellefteå which has been a scrappy point machine.

The thing that has made the most difference in nearly every case is the goaltending. There is good goaltending in Sweden, both from Swedes and other Europeans. That will get its own blog post since it is such a big factor in the success of so many clubs both here and in the NHL.