SHL/Allsvenskan 2021-2022

Yozhik v tumane

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Jan 2, 2019
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No one ever is disappointed with Uncle Leo. When the points don't come everything else comes. Game changer.

It’s not exactly what we were hoping for to replace Omark, who gave us a season for the ages that finished just short of ending a 26 year long wait for another Swedish championship…

However, after Wallmark and Cehlarik declined comebacks, and a few other rumors fizzled out, I have to say that Komarov wasn’t necessarily the star forward we asked for, but it’s such a quintessential Luleå signing you just kind of have to embrace it.

He said himself that he’s not Omark, but another Tyrväinen, and we all love Tyrväinen. I don’t think we have another deep playoff run with this roster, but we’ll be a pain to play against for sure.
 
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mattihp

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It’s not exactly what we were hoping for to replace Omark, who gave us a season for the ages that finished just short of ending a 26 year long wait for another Swedish championship…

However, after Wallmark and Cehlarik declined comebacks, and a few other rumors fizzled out, I have to say that Komarov wasn’t necessarily the star forward we asked for, but it’s such a quintessential Luleå signing you just kind of have to embrace it.

He said himself that he’s not Omark, but another Tyrväinen, and we all love Tyrväinen. I don’t think we have another deep playoff run with this roster, but we’ll be a pain to play against for sure.
Players with good shots usually produce a bit more than in slightly lesser leagues. Rebound control from the D is not as refined. So he could put in 5-10 points more than he did in the KHL.
 
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PuckMunchkin

Very Nice, Very Evil!
Dec 13, 2006
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Can some kind person in the know, give me a short summary of what is going on with Djurgårdens Jonathan Lekkerimäki? While I didn't think he was ready for the SHL like some were demanding, I figured he would be a good player in the Allsvenskan.
 

theslatcher

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Jan 5, 2016
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Can some kind person in the know, give me a short summary of what is going on with Djurgårdens Jonathan Lekkerimäki? While I didn't think he was ready for the SHL like some were demanding, I figured he would be a good player in the Allsvenskan.
Djurgården as a whole is anemic offensively. They heavily rely on defense + Lindbom to bail them out. Something their coach likes very much, he wants them to be a defense-first, offense can come sometime later team.
 
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PuckMunchkin

Very Nice, Very Evil!
Dec 13, 2006
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Djurgården as a whole is anemic offensively. They heavily rely on defense + Lindbom to bail them out. Something their coach likes very much, he wants them to be a defense-first, offense can come sometime later team.

Thank you kindly;

Does Lekkerimäki at least look like he belongs? Im having trouble finding much of any info on his TOI and deployment etc.
 

theslatcher

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Jan 5, 2016
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Thank you kindly;

Does Lekkerimäki at least look like he belongs? Im having trouble finding much of any info on his TOI and deployment etc.
He's on the third line with Östlund+Öhgren and PP2, pretty much the only line on Djurgården that's fun to watch.

With that said:

Linus Klasen has signed with Djurgården. Should give Djurgården some offensive spark by himself.
 
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Yozhik v tumane

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Djurgården as a whole is anemic offensively. They heavily rely on defense + Lindbom to bail them out. Something their coach likes very much, he wants them to be a defense-first, offense can come sometime later team.

I find it surprising that Fagervall has been allowed to continue with Djurgården.

I like him as a person, and we had a fun year with him on Luleå where we probably punched a bit above our weight class taking eventual champions Frölunda to game 6 in the semifinals. I also think there’s likely some team where he’d be a good fit in either HA or the SHL, but I’m not so sure it’s Djurgården.

The guy’s soooo old school, watching us play Malmö last year I just felt his system is what held them back. They didn’t skate enough, they didn’t utilize their individual skill players (of which they certainly had firepower on paper) make any type of creative passing plays to establish offense, but rather would defend and defend then try a long let out pass to a lone, still standing forward, with the pass oftentimes missing the mark and being iced.

When he was with Luleå and it sort of worked out, we had this BIG, gritty, agitating, hard hitting team with guys like Jonathan Granström, Anton Hedman, Per Savilahti-Nagander, Lennart Petrell, Ilari Melart, Emil Sylvegård, and so on. We went from being one of the least penalized teams under “Rönken” to one of the most penalized ones, and just generally a bitch to play against. It was a throwback to the old days and kind of worked out for a season, but I couldn’t look at Malmö then Djurgården last year without thinking that he’s the wrong man for the job.
 

Eye of Ra

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Nov 15, 2008
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I

When he was with Luleå and it sort of worked out, we had this BIG, gritty, agitating, hard hitting team with guys like Jonathan Granström, Anton Hedman, Per Savilahti-Nagander, Lennart Petrell, Ilari Melart, Emil Sylvegård, and so on.
Yummie. My type of hockey. It works, if they can play hockey too and not take dumb penalties.
 

Yozhik v tumane

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Jan 2, 2019
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Yummie. My type of hockey. It works, if they can play hockey too and not take dumb penalties.

As I said, was a pretty fun year. In the absence of the Abbotts, Granström led the team and endeared himself with the fans. Melart, Hedman, Jaros were feisty, punishing hitters as well.

We did have some skill, but not like in more recent years. Wallmark and Cehlarik were both in their last year with us before their pushes to make the NHL and especially the former began coming into his own as a star center for us. Rajala was a massive, overpaid disappointment however, or well, that’s how we remember him. He had decent production, but we’d just received the big donation from Jakob “The Minecraft Billionaire” Porser and our GM Lars “The Cheese” Bergström went nuts throwing way too much money at players who didn’t want to be here to make them sign. I remember fans calculating the price of a Rajala goal and comparing it to Johan Forsberg’s, since the latter had like a 50,000 SEK salary and as opposed to Rajala seemed to score whenever we needed it most. Rajala was also invisible in the playoffs, just two assists in 11 games.

I remember having split emotions to the Fagervall team however. Rönnqvist’s teams were quite deservedly considered boring, although I did appreciate that they opened up a bit and set Klasen free to be more creative the second year, but we had this rather esteemed team doctor in Yelverton Tegner who’d done a lot of research on head injuries where he was one of the leading experts in Sweden, and he and Rönnqvist’s Luleå teams prided themselves in a very long run without headshots or even a major penalty. I remember Fagervall’s team completely changed that, I recall something about Luleå becoming one of the teams with the most majors.

We had some hope that we had a deep enough team to make it all the way during the playoffs, I don’t think we were close to the top teams in the regular season but it felt like a team built for the playoffs. Iirc, we stole the first two games of the semifinals from Frölunda, but they came back and sent us back to reality with like a 9-0 win in the deciding game 6. It was good while it lasted.
 
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Aahlstroem

På Legenders Axlar
Dec 7, 2012
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We had some hope that we had a deep enough team to make it all the way during the playoffs, I don’t think we were close to the top teams in the regular season but it felt like a team built for the playoffs. Iirc, we stole the first two games of the semifinals from Frölunda, but they came back and sent us back to reality with like a 9-0 win in the deciding game 6. It was good while it lasted.
It went back and forth the first four games, VF - Luleå - VF - Luleå, before we got game five and six finishing with an 8-2 win in Luleå. Good times.
 

Yozhik v tumane

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Jan 2, 2019
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It went back and forth the first four games, VF - Luleå - VF - Luleå, before we got game five and six finishing with an 8-2 win in Luleå. Good times.

Rough final showing for Filip Gustafsson in the SHL before leaving for North America.

Our teams faced each other a bunch of times over the years so it’s easy to get confused. Was one of those games the one where Luleå scored three goals with the goalie pulled? I recall a playoff game where Frölunda was up by two in the third, Luleå gets one with the extra attacker, then Frölunda puts one in the empty net, but we score again to bring it within one, then another empty netter from Frölunda, and with no time left to tie the game we do at least get a remarkable third goal with our goalie pulled to make it a singular goal loss.
 
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Aahlstroem

På Legenders Axlar
Dec 7, 2012
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Rough final showing for Filip Gustafsson in the SHL before leaving for North America.

Our teams faced each other a bunch of times over the years so it’s easy to get confused. Was one of those games the one where Luleå scored three goals with the goalie pulled? I recall a playoff game where Frölunda was up by two in the third, Luleå gets one with the extra attacker, then Frölunda puts one in the empty net, but we score again to bring it within one, then another empty netter from Frölunda, and with no time left to tie the game we do at least get a remarkable third goal with our goalie pulled to make it a singular goal loss.
There's been some classic games and series over the years, especially in the Roger era. You're a modern rival for sure. I recall the game but I'm not sure it was that series.
 
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Yozhik v tumane

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There's been some classic games and series over the years, especially in the Roger era. You're a modern rival for sure. I recall the game but I'm not sure it was that series.

You’ve usually been on the winning side of things but I believe both times we made the finals in the last decade we did pull through Frölunda. And in 2016, I took pride in us lasting as long as we did, and that we gave you a better match than Skellefteå did in the finals.

Last year was the best ride with my team since probably forever, as I was too young to appreciate the 1996 championship (good times) until after the fact. I sincerely was hoping for a route of Växjö, Frölunda and Skellefteå as it seemed the most apt for our redemption saga. Skellefteå in the finals would have been epic, since we never beat them in the playoffs and that was our year until it wasn’t. Alas, it were the ancient ghoul of Färjestad going waterskiing on Omark that killed our dreams instead.

I went to Scandinavium for the first time ever last time our teams played, a few weeks ago, and it was cool how amiable people were. Drunken old fellows approached our pub table before the game wanting to share memories and were really nice. One guy gave me his phone and told me to tell off his friend from Luleå for not showing up as he’d promised, was kind of awkward because I was only on my first beer, and the guy on the phone told me he unfortunately couldn’t come because his mother was ill and needed someone to drive her to the hospital, so I told the guy I felt he had a pretty good excuse. Anyhow, the guy told me that he’d befriended a few people from Luleå in Frölundaborg during the 1996 finals and they’d remained close since, so that was nice to hear. The other man who approached us mainly wanted to make clear that the only SHL fans he feel are total idiots are those “inbred, six-fingered tools” from Skellefteå, and that Luleå fans have always been welcoming and good spirited to him. As a Luleå fan you can cheer to that, but I’ve had mostly pleasant run-ins with Skellefteå fans too and it’s pretty clear to me that any hockey fanbase seem to be a million times more sane and nice than an unfortunate amount of football fans.
 
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Yozhik v tumane

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Jan 2, 2019
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Tomi Sallinen (confirmed) and Mario Kempe (yet to be confirmed) to Luleå.

Both very much seem like “Bulan players”. Sallinen I’m guessing has been on the radar as an allround good team fit, and we’re pouncing on him as he’s become available due to disappointing production in the Czech league. With Jonas Berglund injured and Carl Mattsson struggling/benched, we’re low on playable centers and Sallinen seems like injury insurance more than anything.

Kempe, however, is probably the “star signing” we’ve long been waiting for. Again, seems very much like a Bulan player, dynamic and hard working, however one who’s been productive in the KHL and should leverage some of our scoring woes, in case he’s able to stay healthy.

I do hope signing Kempe won’t mean the door’s shut in case Andreasson or Hållander decides they’ve had enough with toiling in the AHL and asks to return before the transfer window closes.
 
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Eye of Ra

Grandmaster General of the International boards
Nov 15, 2008
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Tomi Sallinen (confirmed) and Mario Kempe (yet to be confirmed) to Luleå.

Both very much seem like “Bulan players”. Sallinen I’m guessing has been on the radar as an allround good team fit, and we’re pouncing on him as he’s become available due to disappointing production in the Czech league. With Jonas Berglund injured and Carl Mattsson struggling/benched, we’re low on playable centers and Sallinen seems like injury insurance more than anything.

Kempe, however, is probably the “star signing” we’ve long been waiting for. Again, seems very much like a Bulan player, dynamic and hard working, however one who’s been productive in the KHL and should leverage some of our scoring woes, in case he’s able to stay healthy.

I do hope signing Kempe won’t mean the door’s shut in case Andreasson or Hållander decides they’ve had enough with toiling in the AHL and asks to return before the transfer window closes.
I have Luleå as the favorites for the Gold. Bulan as the coach, 4 even lines and more physical team this year than they had past years. Sure superstars like Omark is missing, but 4 even lines (with Sallinen and Kempe in) should be enough.
 

Yozhik v tumane

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Jan 2, 2019
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I have Luleå as the favorites for the Gold. Bulan as the coach, 4 even lines and more physical team this year than they had past years. Sure superstars like Omark is missing, but 4 even lines (with Sallinen and Kempe in) should be enough.

I wish you were right, but this team is seriously lacking right now. They can’t score, it’s getting ridiculous. More often than not, if we allow more than one goal we’ve lost the game. Yesterday we couldn’t even score once.

And this is the usual problem with our teams. We have a well-oiled team machine but we lack the scoring edge of other contenders. Remove Omark from last year, I don’t think we even get past Örebro in the quarterfinals. No, Andreasson doesn’t score seven goals without Omark setting him up.

I sure hope Kempe’s the star forward we so desperately need, even half the player Omark was would help.
 

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