Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond 2025/26

[Per]

The Finland Hockey Games tournament is being held next week.
Participants are Finland, Sweden, Czechia and Switzerland.

For the Finns, Czechs and Swiss this is good practice ahead of the Olympics. Sure, the Finns have 32 skaters in the NHL, but there is still a decent chance for Finnish SM-Liiga players to prove themselves in this tournament and make a case for Olympic participation. The Czechs only have 13 players in the NHL these days and the Swiss 10, so for them it's a real try-out. Their Olympic teams will be mainly non-NHL.

Now, normally this tournament doesn't mean much for Sweden. It's not like the players we send to this tournament will be on the Olympic team.
We have 69 skaters and 9 goalies in the NHL, and the chance of any SHL player making the cut is almost negligible. So this is more a chance for those that are too old for the WJC and have not yet made it to the NHL to gain some international experience. And they may have a shot at making the cut for the World Championships held in April or May, when many NHLers won't be available .

This time it's different. Sam Hallam, who is Sweden's head coach, has decided to have Nicklas Bäckström play this tournament.
This is a real bona fide NHL superstar who scored 1033 points in 1105 games over 18 seasons. He has won the Stanley Cup, the Gagarin Cup (KHL playoffs, during the lockout), two world championships and has an Olympic silver medal.

Due to injuries he only played 39 games in 2022/23, 8 games in 2023/24 and none at all in 2024/25. But after returning to Sweden he strapped on his skates again and is playing for his old team Brynäs in the SHL, on a line with Jakob Silfverberg, who has also returned home after a long NHL career. With 13 points in 17 games he looks good but doesn't really stand out, yet Sam Hallam likes what he has seen and wants to try him against international competition and give him a good look. Hockey is not just scoring points, but also positioning and making those around you better. Bäckström's strength were always his hockey sense and his playmaking abilities. Pairing someone with his expertise and experience with some lethal scorers could be a winning move. And yeah, he's averaging 19:29 of ice time, so his conditioning seems just fine.

We'll see what happens.

[donlever]

Thanks Per.

Interesting intel on Backstrom.

As you intimate his experience alone will have an impact to the Swedish entry.

Ovie would be pretty happy about Backstrom playing 19 minutes a night beside him.

[Per]

So on Monday it was announced Bäckström won't join the team for the Finland Hockey Games tournament.

He needs to rest, but maintains it is a minor issue that shouldn't affect the season.

[Per]

Yeah, I know. The Swedish second tier league isn't what everyone wants to hear about.
But I root for two teams; Vancouver and Björklöven.

Björklöven are having a tremendous season so far.

15 games in, they are at the top of the standings and have created an 8 point gap to Modo in second place!
And the goal differential a stunning +41! 60 goals scored and 19 allowed.

Modo, of Tomas Gradin, Peter Forsberg, Markus Näslund and the Sedin twins fame, were in the SHL last season, but got demoted.
Most people figured that with the stronger economy and having kept most of the team, they should be able to bounce back right away and get promoted again. But so far it's not looking like they are on a path to doing that.

Most people have held Modo and Björklöven as the two teams that will fight it out at the top and that one of these two will get the promotion to the SHL. At the moment it looks like Björklöven might have the better chance to do this. But it's a long season.

And mind you, winning the regular season doesn't do it. You have to win the playoffs.
Most likely these two teams will eventually square off in a best out of seven series in the final.
But Kalmar could be a bit of a dark horse. They have some lethal goal scorers.

Our Achilles's heel last season was defence, but we have a new coach and four new d-men and things seem to have changed.
So far they've only allowed 19 goals against over 15 games! And only one goal against on the penalty kill. One. In 19 games.
Last game they played 3 against 5 for one and a half minute, and I wasn't even worried.

The team has several young players that are performing beyond expectations.

Jakob Ihs-Wozniak, Oliwer Sjöström and Bruno Osmanis should all be at the WJC despite being just 18. Osmanis playing for Latvia. Wozniak is born in February and was drafted in the second round by Vegas this summer, but the other two are still available. Osmanis was probably the best player on the Latvian team last year, but got injured, which could be why he didn't get drafted. It was a slash to the eye that made him miss the rest of the tournament, but he is fine now. Philip Hemmyr is another 18-yo who may not make the cut for the WJC but who is playing much better than expected. I mean, even just making the roster of a men's team at age 18 is huge. Even if it's the second tier.

One of our goalies, Olle Eriksson Ek, is the brother of Minnesota's Joel Eriksson Ek, and our most prolific goal scorer, Fredrik Forsberg, who won the goal and points scoring titles of the league last season, is the brother of Nashville's Filip Forsberg.

Two great goals by Forsberg to start this game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfrYnpActmY

But our best player is probably 22-yo Liam Dower-Nilsson, who was drafted by the Red Wings in 2021. 19 points in the first 15 games this season. Wouldn't be surprised to see him in Detroit within a year or two.

This is the game we played against Modo two weeks ago.
Liam scores the first goal for Björklöven and the game winning penalty in the shootout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnN417V2qAM