A hockey diary would probably work best if I made notes as I go …
Let’s see what I can remember.
Wednesday 27 December
The Stockholm derby lived up to the hype as both sets of fans created an incredible atmosphere in what will be the last derby at the Aviici Arena until 2025. AIK earned their 3-1 victory, with Zion Nybeck (4th round selection in 2020 by Carolina) catching my eye with a couple of assists and general composure to pick a pass.
The game started with a bang thanks to Djurgårdens’ Albin Grewe getting himself yet another daft 5-and-game penalty early on, making that three such penalties in five games. The Djurgårdens faithful have shown their support to him since then with a banner stating they’ve got his back. He needs to repay that by finding a way to maintain his edge without being so reckless.
Thursday 28 December
A wonderful feast of SHL action awaited us on Thursday and I spent the early evening switching between a few of the games.
Hard luck story of the night probably went to Malmö Redhawks who managed to keep the red-hot Lucas Elvenes quiet (after amassing 10 points over his previous three games), yet still took a 4-1 loss at home against Leksands.
Friday 29 December
Friday offered me a chance to watch the Edmonton Oilers for the first time in a while following the Christmas break in NHL action. It was the start of a 3-game West Coast trip and I’ll admit that I bailed on my initial idea of watching the game live at 3.30am here in the UK.
A 5-0 thumping of the San Jose Sharks was a nice treat to catch up on during a lazy Friday morning though.
That evening it was back to some Swedish hockey in the form of the HockeyAllsvenskan. There was a full slate of games and I tend to try to mix things up with which teams I catch, but in this case I had to double up on Djurgårdens with them facing Södertälje in the final game at Avicii Arena before the 2024 renovation work.
Sometimes games with a big build-up can result in an anti-climax. In this case, the two teams combined for 10 goals in a 7-3 thumping by Djurgårdens. Olle Liss, Linus Klasen and Alexander Ytterell all had three-point nights as the home fans went home happy.
Saturday 30 December
It was another SHL afternoon as I switched between the three early games: Färjestad vs Oskarshamn, Timrå vs Leksands and Skellefteå vs Luleå.
Oskarshamn were trying to repeat their ‘bottom beating the top’ trick for a third time this season, yet Färjestad approached the match-up like an older brother fed up with their younger sibling messing them about. It was a 3-1 home win that could have been decided by an even bigger margin.
Leksands’ Lukas Elvenes decided that taking one game off the scoresheet was more than enough for him and immediately racked up another two points to his tally as part of a 4-2 victory.
That left Skellefteå vs Luleå, which was the main focus of my viewing in the afternoon and proved to be an excellent choice. Skellefteå prevailed 5-2 in a game full of incidents, not least on what proved to be the key goal of the game.
Luleå were trailing 3-2 and pushing hard for an equaliser in the Third Period when their Canadian forward Brendan Shinnimin was cross-checked in the head by Arvid Lundberg. The officials somehow missed it despite the evidence of Shinnimin’s helmet flying off.
With no whistle on the play, the helmet-less Shinnimin had to head to the bench. This created a gaping hole in Luleå’s defensive set-up as Skellefteå blazed through and scored to make it 4-2.
The non-call leading to a goal would have annoyed Shinnimin enough; the sight of Lundberg celebrating, having been the one to slam the puck home less than 10 seconds after using his stick for a very different purpose, sent the Canadian into a full-on meltdown.
Lundberg subsequently was given a three-game suspension by the Disciplinary Committee. I suspect this didn’t make Shinnimin feel any better about the situation, not least because the Committee gave him a one-game ban for a play earlier in the game too.
Sunday 31 December
The final day of 2023 gave me another opportunity to get up at 3am to watch the Oilers. Once more I stared in disbelief at my alarm clock, remembered why it had gone off at such an ungodly hour, thought better of it and went straight back to sleep.
When I did wake from my slumber I watched the Oilers be completely outplayed in the First Period by the LA Kings, yet they somehow found a way to stick in it and ultimately came back and won 3-2 in a shoot-out.
Monday 1 January
I’ve reached the stage in life where I can’t help but think that the endless “Happy” New Year pleasantries didn’t prove to be especially accurate when dished out a year ago. I guess a bit of blind optimism can’t hurt?
Anyway, my cynicism was tested immediately by watching back the Oilers thrashing the desperate Ducks 7-2 overnight. Nothing to go overboard with – Anaheim didn’t put up much of a fight until the game was long gone and then they just decided to start picking actual fights – although it was interesting to see that Edmonton’s record at this stage of the campaign isn’t much different to what it was last season. A bad losing run early in the season always gets far more attention than it if happens during December/January.
In the evening I caught a bit of the PWHL debut game and then some of the Seattle-Vegas Winter Classic.
There’s been some more hockey since then too, but I’ll save those up for the next update. I’ve made some notes this time …