Silly season is under way, but I still find myself depressed and downbeat thinking about Hockey, so I have stayed away from the blog and all my bookmarked websites for a while. Needless to say, it is impossible to cleanse my world completely from it, as the whacking of a black rubber thingee on frozen water is a fully integrated part of my everyday life. Try and aviod it, and you get caught out with a tackle from behind that knocks you out for twenty. That is just what has happened.
I attended a friends wedding and as the brother of the bride is as much of a hockey fanatic as I am we obviously got into a conversation about the upcoming world championships and the season just gone. He's got it all sorted. Albeit he's Slovakian and usually only have an outside chance of seeing any medals on the international scene (I know, they still manage to beat Sweden every time, so I should keep stumm), his domestic side has defended their title. Košice beat local rivals Bratislava and you could see the excitement and joy in his face as he described the finals in detail.
After he finished he looked at me and told me he'd followed Leksand's results over the web. What is wrong with this Swedish ice hockey? How many years in a row have you won your division - 3? 4? And they still don't let you up? That seems completely fucked mate! I have never heard of a similar system anywhere. Why don't they change it?
As we downed another Sambuca, I nodded in agreement. Yeah, it is fucked. Then was going to explain what went wrong, and after a few seconds I found myself talking about economy, TV money, the struggles of several of the teams in the second tier to stay alive, and that's when it hit me like a face-slap from an over ripe herring. Talking about Swedish domestic ice hockey invariably develops into a discussion of figures and numbers. To talk Swedish Ice Hockey, you really need a university degree in advanced economics. And as any map will show you, Leksand, Umeå, Almtuna and Västerås is a very long way from Oxford, Cambridge or Yale.
In fact, it has indeed proven way too far away from Umeå, as Björklöven has seized to exist. The Swedish Champions from 1987 has been declared bankrupt. Björklöven fostered players such as Ulf Dahlén and Calle Johansson and I regarded them as one of the original 'Big' clubs with tradition and culture not many can match. It is truly an indication of how bad the state of Swedish Ice hockey really is when a club like Björklöven disappears.
As I said, my friend has got it sorted. When he talks ice hockey, it is simply about what happens on the ice. That's the game I grew up with. That's the game I love! Could we have it back please Mr Loob?
