Photo: Scanpix

The icehockey quarterfinals in "Elitserien" starts today. My team Skellefteå AIK will go against Färjestads BK whom they lost against in the semifinal last year.
I keep my fingers crossed, but no matter who win and scores tonight, all goals come from Skellefteå :)

The current European peak for a club match in hockey was 2007, when 30 076 watched the match between Bern and Lagnau. The figure beats for Frölunda and Färjestad match with 1068 spectators.

- It's really fun that so many want to see the match. I've never experienced anything like this even when we played final, "said Frölunda club director, Mats Ahdrian.

Last That puts a attendance record for hockey at Ullevi was in 1962 in Västra Frölunda, Sweden and...

Peter Forsberg (right) at the Avalanche in 1997

Well, at least there was one week without any news on the Phoeninx Coyotes.

After missing the pre-season training camp, it was assumed (at least officially) that trainer Wayne Gretzky would join the team in good time before the start of the season. Now the club has realized what the rest of us expected; Gretzky has resigned from the troubled club. The new coach will be ex-Dallas Star...

With the ice-hockey season getting under way here in Europe and the NHL start imminent, I thought it would be easy to find something to write about but the first week for ages that the Phoenix Coyotes sale hasn't made headlines proved to be light on other news.

Last season's losing finalists, Detroit Red Wings, have also lost a few players. All in all, they will have to be without players that answered for 88 goals and 99 assists of...

With the KHL rapidly growing to the heights of the North American NHL, Hockey Europe was formed not long ago to safeguard the interests of the top professional leagues in the rest of Europe. This new union, representing the leagues in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland, recently chose a new General Manager in Sweden's Peter Gudmundsson, replacing Finn Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen, to lead Hockey Europe in its...

 

While trawling the web for news other than the latest on the Coyotes' auction (see below), I spotted this piece on the iihf.com website, where I normally go to get news anyway. The site is a mine of information, not just NHL and other professional leagues around the world but also the minor nations and, especially, women's ice hockey.

The piece I was referring to is about a minor nation, in the women's world, making a strong raid into the elite. Slovakia has always...

With my football blog concentrating on the women at the moment, I thought it only fair to turn my attention to women's ice-hockey as well.

The Hockey Canada Cup starts Monday evening in Vancouver's GM Place and will be a strong test for the Olympic organizers as well as for the four nations expected to battle it out for the Olympic 1-2-3. Women's teams representing Canada, the USA, Sweden and Finland will...

So far this year the number of European rookies signing on with NHL clubs has dropped 46% compared with the same time last year. Although more European free-agents will sign on before the season start due to a lack of transfer agreement between the European leagues and the NHL, the number will probably be around 50%. This doesn't necessarily mean there will be fewer Europeans playing in the NHL next season as the number of players travelling in the opposite direction has also gone down, from 46 to 25. Th...

AP Photo/M. Spencer Green

A short while ago I wrote how Marian Hossa had made the move from Stanley Cup runners-up Detroit Redwings to the Chicago Blackhawks, calling him a Jonah. Seems he is in more ways than one. The NHL is now investigating the contract he has with the Hawks, a $62.8 million, 12 year contract. The question is whether Hossa and the Hawks ever discussed the idea of the player retiring before his contract runs out...

(AP Photo/Danny Moloshok)

Not much happening on the ice-hockey front now in the height of summer except in the courtrooms of North America. In the ongoing question of the sale of the Phoenix Coyotes' in the NHL, trainer and part-owner of the franchise, Wayne Gretzky, obliged the request of the city of Glendale in the bankruptcy hearings to hand over necessary document and make a deposition. The documents will only be those that have...

This season's Winter Classic at Fenway Park in Boston will be between the home town Bruins against Philadelphia Flyers on New Year's Day 2010. This information became official last Wednesday in an NHL press meeting at the famous baseball arena. This will be the third Winter Classic after starting on January 1, 2008, at the Ralph Wilson Stadium in New York between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres in front of a...

In the quiet of the close season, a contract squabble has erupted between the NHL in North America and the KHL in Russia. The latest player in this tug-o'-war is Jiri Hudler, who defected from Detroit to follow bigger roubles in the KHL. The NHL says he is contracted to play in the NHL next season and has lodged a protest to the IIHF. Of course, this isn't the first dispute between the leagues and as wages increase on this side of the Atlantic, it probably won'...

But firstly, the Chicago Blackhawks has signed the Stanley Cup jinx Marian Hossa. Fans of the Windy City will be hoping the man can break the jinx this coming season and help bring the cup home to Chicago next year. Hossa was playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 07/08 season and took part in the Stanley Cup final against Detroit Redwings. The Penguins went down in six matches, after which Hossa packed his bags and went to Detroit...

Of the 30 choices made in the first round of the NHL draft, 17 fell on Canadian nationals, 7 on Swedes, 5 Americans and just one from Russia. The seven Swedes were one more than their best year so far in 1993. What's more remarkable is that not a single goaltender was selected among the first 30!

First choice overall was John Tavares, selected by the New York Islanders, followed by Sweden's Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay, and Matt Duchene, Colorado. The only notable...

The fans helping the Penguins celebrate their Stanley Cup victory could be counted in their hundreds of thousands in downtown Pittsburgh last week. The Penguins managed to make the final after being all but out of a chance of attaining a playoff place four months earlier but recorded 18-3-4 in matches after taking on AHL coach Dan Bylsma during the regular season. This record took the team to a fourth place in the Eastern Conference and a successful playoffs...

So the 2008/09 season finally came to an end with the Pittsburgh Penguins winning the seventh game in the Stanley Cup Final. Much has already been written and said about the final but I want to concentrate on poor Marian Hossa. He was with the losing side Pittsburgh in last year's Stanley Cup Final when Detroit Redwings won 4-2 in matches. After that, he became a free agent but was offered a long-term contract with the Penguins which he declined, instead he...

All square over the pond. Pittsburgh Penguins last night equalised in matches to 3-3 and forced a seventh and deciding match in Detroit against the Redwings. In last night's match, the deciding factor was the Penguins' keeper Marc-Andre Fleury. He really stepped up when it counted and made 25 saves in the 2-1 win, including the final minutes when Detroit pressurised the Penguins' goal.

He pulled out what could be called the save of the series so far when Dan Cleary came free on a breakaway with 1:41 remaining. Fleury stayed with the puck as Cleary switched from forehand to backhand...

Penalty killing has been a problem for the Detroit Redwings all season. That's what allowed the Pittsburgh Penguins back into the Stanley Cup final series once it moved to Pittsburgh after Detroit gained a 2-0 advantage at home. In game four last Thursday, it was their power play that let them down instead. Things were going fine for the Wings in the middle period when Brad Stuart gave them the lead and then they were given back-to-back power-plays from 5:44 in the period. However, nothing came from the power-plays and the Penguins even scored a shorthanded goal in the second. These events...

Being 2-0 down in matches is a mountain to ascend if you're going to even out a best of seven series, let alone win it, but that's just what Pittsburgh Penguins has done once already this year. They were 2-0 down against second seed Washington Capitals in round two of the playoffs and looked to be on their way out when they won the next three games to gain the advantage. They eventually took the entire series with a convincing 6-2 win away to Washington. Now they can be on their way to doing it again after winning the third match in the Stanley Cup Final on home ice to Detroit. We'll see...

If you've been following this blog during the NHL playoffs, you'll have noticed I'm not impressed with the home ice advantage gained during the regular season. I'm not especially up on numbers and statistics but let's take a look:

There were a total of 80 matches played in 14 match series in the three playoff rounds leading up to the final. Of these matches, only 5 were 7^th match deciders and the home team came out on top in only two of them. Round two was the closest with three of the four series going to a 7^th match, with home ice being decisive in only one o...

Yes, that's right; someone who played 55 games in the American Hockey League this season stepped up on Wednesday night to decide the Western Conference Final for his Detroit Redwings against the Chicago Blackhawks. With just 23 NHL games under his belt, Darren Helm has not scored a single NHL goal in the regular season, yet...

Last week, I asked the question of whether Carolina Hurricanes could come back from being one down in their Eastern Conference final. Now, they're at 0-3 and it's looking more and more unlikely. They're still in with a chance, though, and tomorrow's fourth game against Pittsburgh Penguins will be huge. It's tough enough winning one match against the Penguins, four in a row will be, shall we say, difficult! Even if the Hurricanes haven't yet made a comeback, Penguins' Sidney Crosby certainly did in answer to my second question last week. In the latest match, the pairing of Crosby together...

Carolina Hurricanes will tonight against Pittsburgh Penguins attempt to repeat what they have done in their two previous play-off series in the Eastern Conference: a comeback from being 0-1 down after the first game in the series. In the two rounds leading up to the conference final, the Hurricanes have lost the initial battle each time, first against the New Jersey Devils (4-3 series win) and then Boston Bruins (also 4-3). Pittsburgh's big star, Sidney Crosby, will be looking to play a more dominant role than he did in the first match, where his passes seemed to be most...

After knocking out the Calgary Flames in the sixth match of their series, Chicago Blackhawk President John McDonough likened the situation to a group of college students taking their graduation. Well, these graduates have now advanced another round after knocking out Vancouver after six games and are facing "old boys" Detroit in the Western Conference final. In the team, Chicago has eleven players that are 23 or younger while Detroit is the oldest team in the NHL with an average age of just over 31. In the first match last night, the graduates were taught a lesson with old boys Detroit...

So what happens now when the World Championships are over? Us Europeans just have next season to look forward to, or look across the Atlantic at North America and the NHL play-offs. Before we do that, there is still some World Championship news to catch up on. One of the most interesting discussions at this year's Worlds was what will be happening at the opening of next year's tournament in Germany....

After a rather hectic start to the IIHF World Championship final between Russia and Canada, the Russians threatened to take over completely as Canada's Doan took a minor penalty three minutes into the match. At that stage, it was Canadian...

Both Sweden and the USA went for Sunday stroll in the park this afternoon in Berne with the USA getting back to the match before the Swedes. The USA got into the game first with a goal from Johnson five minutes into the second period and brought the Swedes back onto the ice and into the match to make it more competitive. Eriksson equalized for the Swedes after 13 minutes and Mårtensson put them ahead two minutes later...

The Washington-Pittsburgh match-up has its history and it looks like it might be repeating itself. After last night's 4-3 OT win in Washington, the Penguins are on the verge of winning a tie against the Capitals after being two games down for the FOURTH time in history! In 1992, Pittsburgh was down 2-0 and 3-1 but came back to win after seven matches. They trailed 3-1 in 1995 as well but managed to win the next three matches to come out 4-3 winners again. It was 2-0 to the Capitals again in 1996, only for the Penguins to win the next four matches to end up victors. It's been a few years...

I have had a week with anxiety but also a chocking insight that I am probably the laziest person existing regarding physical activities. I had this horrible physical test on Wednesday morning. I do not yet know the full result of it, but my guess is that it is not entirely perfect.... After that, when realizing that I probably have to train a little bit more, I suddenly discover how active everybody else is. I have friends who book core sessions at 6.30 in the morning, and my husband decided one morning to run to his work. 16 K!! What is the problem with everybody? Or what is the problem with...

A late goal by Gorovikov for the Russians took them to Sunday's World Championship final in Berne but where were the United States? I saw two European teams on the ice today and the Swedish TV commentators I was watching said the Americans...

I rush in to the hotel. Turns on the TV. Well, there they are, the blue-yellow against a red-white, looking each other in the eye and the clock showing 20.00 period 1. I made it! Quarter final of the ice hockey World...

Your heart just has to go out to the Swiss in their last match in Group E of the qualification round. They needed all three points in their match against a USA team that had already qualified to the quarterfinals. All credit to the USA; despite already being qualified, they gave away nothing to the Swiss. The Swiss finally won the game 4-3 but the game winning goal came 13 seconds (!) the...

Have you been reading my football blog? Recently I wrote about 6 5 and thought I'd write about it here too. Although here it's going to be about 6 against 5 instead.

In the IIHF World Championships, Sweden weren't able to repeat their comeback feat, this time against the Russians. They did manage to equalize with just over one minute left of regular time and overtime seemed to be goalless until Kalinin scored for Russia with just 56 seconds...

Wow! What a week for the brave. I'm concentrating on two ice hockey games played this week that weren't exactly for the fainthearted.

It started off earlier this week in the seventh and deciding game in the NHL play-offs between New Jersey and Carolina. New Jersey had a one goal advantage going into the last two minutes of the match to give them a Conference semi-final place...

The four wealthiest icehockey clubs in Sweden; Färjestad, Frölunda, Linköping and HV71 has together with the Stockholm Team, Djurgården decided that they will not prolong their contract with SHL (Swedish Hockey League).
Reason? Well apparently they do not think that they can earn enough money and develop by staying in Sweden and play in Elitserien.

Talks has been going on together with KHL (Kontinental Hockey League, Russia) to start a kind of European league with...

 

After two periods in the Germany - Russia match at the IIHF World Championships in Bern on the opening day of the tournament I knew what this blog would be about. A period later, the Russians had blown that idea out of the water (or off the ice if you like). The idea surfaced again after two periods of the Sweden - Austria game on Saturday but the final period blew the idea...

World Championships in icehockey starts today. How fun is it nowadays? Honestly!

Personally I think that the status of the Championships has been really hurt the last two decades. As NHL Stanley Cup prevents the absolute top icehockey players to attend, the quality past years has been, well....so-so.

However, things can change. I have not yet figured out what I really think about KHL. But there is definately at least one positive thing coming out of the...