Maturin
Sköldpadda
Färjestad is out of the SHL Playoffs for the third year in a row in the quarter finals after a 2-4 series against reigning champions Skellefteå AIK. Starter GK Maxime Lagacé sustained a neck injury period 1 of the first game so how he would have fared in this series we'll never know. In retrospect seems like the only way this could possibly go.
We were left with 36 year old Anders Lindbäck, who before joining as a 3rd hadn't played hockey regularly since January 2024 and a backup in Jörgen Hanneborg on emergency loan from Hockeyallsvenskan club Västerås IK... Sort of expected, but not on Lindbäck at all. He did okay. Team did well for a couple of games and completely choked on others and with no margins against the best keeper in the league on the opposite side - well, it speaks for itself.
Färjestads relationship with Anaheim Ducks is probably not good at the moment. First pulling out 2nd GK Damian Clara after a bad season where he was forced to start with Lagacé injured too many times and reaching an 87,9% SVS statistic (dead last in the league) and a widely publicized personal confidence crisis and then pulling defender Stian Solberg days before the playoffs as well.
David Tomášek is leaving for Edmonton Oilers after scoring 57 points in 47 games. New set of goalies next year with Junior International Melker Thelin as 2nd and rumoured Emil Larmi (coming from Växjö Lakers) as the monster starter we're promised.
For what's left of this year's hockey, the SHL isn't that exciting. Skellefteå, Luleå, Frölunda, Brynäs. Any could win and it doesn't make much difference. I turn my attention to second tier series Hockeyallsvenskan where BIK Karlskoga have reached the semifinals and created a buzz around possibly having a second SHL team from the Värmland region. To make that reality, they have to deny two classic Stockholm teams in AIK and Djurgården a place in the highest series once again.
Does anybody want that? Probably not. Karlskoga is a 27,000 population town in the middle of the woods and supporting an SHL-level team is probably not possible at this time without having had years to build for it. But the idea of a closed league like the NHL has never appealed to me.
We were left with 36 year old Anders Lindbäck, who before joining as a 3rd hadn't played hockey regularly since January 2024 and a backup in Jörgen Hanneborg on emergency loan from Hockeyallsvenskan club Västerås IK... Sort of expected, but not on Lindbäck at all. He did okay. Team did well for a couple of games and completely choked on others and with no margins against the best keeper in the league on the opposite side - well, it speaks for itself.
Färjestads relationship with Anaheim Ducks is probably not good at the moment. First pulling out 2nd GK Damian Clara after a bad season where he was forced to start with Lagacé injured too many times and reaching an 87,9% SVS statistic (dead last in the league) and a widely publicized personal confidence crisis and then pulling defender Stian Solberg days before the playoffs as well.
David Tomášek is leaving for Edmonton Oilers after scoring 57 points in 47 games. New set of goalies next year with Junior International Melker Thelin as 2nd and rumoured Emil Larmi (coming from Växjö Lakers) as the monster starter we're promised.
For what's left of this year's hockey, the SHL isn't that exciting. Skellefteå, Luleå, Frölunda, Brynäs. Any could win and it doesn't make much difference. I turn my attention to second tier series Hockeyallsvenskan where BIK Karlskoga have reached the semifinals and created a buzz around possibly having a second SHL team from the Värmland region. To make that reality, they have to deny two classic Stockholm teams in AIK and Djurgården a place in the highest series once again.
Does anybody want that? Probably not. Karlskoga is a 27,000 population town in the middle of the woods and supporting an SHL-level team is probably not possible at this time without having had years to build for it. But the idea of a closed league like the NHL has never appealed to me.
