A great season?

A great season?

This years Swedish hockey season were going to be one of the greatest hockey seasons in Swedish hockey history. The NHL-lock out have caused serious disturbance in the National Hockey League, and several professional players have left America to play in their own, home country leagues. Peter Forsberg (Colorado Avalanche), Mattias Weinhandl (New York Islanders) and the Sedin-brothers (Vancouver Canucks) are a few players that left the NHL for Sweden and the Elite Series. But the question is, will the series be better when the NHL-stars have arrived? Or will they just ruin it?

So far, it has been rather clear that just because a team got lots of talented players, it doesn't mean that the team will play better. The consequences have been quite the opposite in fact. We can take MoDo Hockey, our ”hometown-team” here in Örnsköldsvik, as an example. Previous mentioned players like Peter Forsberg and Mattias Weinhandl have all joined MoDo Hockey this year. Among a couple of others, these players was suppose to be the heart in the player troup, and with Peter Forsberg, who's considered to be the best hockey player in the world, many people thought that this would be a very exciting and interesting hockey season. But we were all wrong. So far the NHL-players haven't played very well, not much better than anyone else anyway.
After eight games, MoDo lies on fifth place in the Elite Series table, even if MoDo is one of the teams which have recruited most NHL-players. Instead, some unbacked teams like Linköping and Mora have played surprisingly good. But the season is far from over and not all games have been played yet and we in Sweden won't stop hopeing that the teams will keep on their great game and that we can expect and look forward to a great continuation on this, so far, pretty boring hockey season.