Puckarinen

Another move

Sat, 4 Dec 2010 00:06:53 +0100

Puckarinen will try to go back home. From now on, all my writing will be under www.ristopakarinen.com.

See you there. Be well.

IIHF.com: Musical chairs in Finland

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:22:42 +0100

Five of the 14 SM-liiga teams have made a coaching change

HELSINKI � Hannu Aravirta is back behind the bench. The former Team Finland head coach was hired as new head coach of K�rp�t Oulu on November 22, after the club board had decided to relieve Mikko Haapakoski from his duties.

K�rp�t is currently 11th in the standings, four points from tenth place, which still qualifies for post-season. Haapakoski had been promoted to head coach last season, when the club fired Matti Alatalo.

Oops, you lost.

Aravirta, in turn, had been out of a coaching post since his season ended with Modo in Sweden last season. A year ago, he was hired to Modo in January, and according to media reports, declined an offer to sign an extension with the club, to pursue opportunities in the KHL. But since a coach is only as good as his last game, no coach can afford sitting on the sidelines all too long.

Last season, Aravirta was available, because he was fired from Jokerit Helsinki in November 2009, and replaced by Hannu Jortikka, who made his second tour at the club. That ended on November 24, when general manager Jarmo Kek�l�inen showed him the door and signed another former Team Finland coach, Erkka Westerlund, as the head coach.

Jokerit is eighth in the standings, eight points from sixth place, or, the quarterfinals.

Westerlund had left coaching after the 2007 World Championship, to take over as the principal at the Vierum�ki Sports Academy. He subsequently took a leave of absence to be the director of coaching at the Finnish federation to then move on to a change committee for Finnish sports.

To then get back to coaching, with Jokerit.

The club now has three famous coaches on its payroll since both Jortikka�s and Aravirta�s contracts expire at the end of this season. Between the three of them, Jortikka, Aravirta, and Westerlund are behind some of the biggest success stories in Finnish hockey history: A world junior championship, a world championship, Olympic bronze and silver medals, nine SM-liiga titles, and nine other medals in the SM-liiga.

Jortikka became the fourth SM-liiga coach to get fired this season. In addition, Tappara Tampere has its third coach of the season in Sami Hirvonen, as Mikko Saarinen resigned in May, and his successor, Petri Mattila did the same just days before the regular season opener.

The reigning champion, Turku TPS, was the first club to pull the plug on their coach. Heikki Leime, who took over from Kai Suikkanen, who left for the KHL after the SM-liiga title, was fired in October when TPS was dead last in the standings and was in a 13-game losing streak.

(Suikkanen, by the way, was fired in early November in Yaroslavl.)

Maybe it was TPS�s decision to fire Leime that inspired the Pelicans Lahti to fire their head coach, Mika Toivola. The Pelicans had lost only five in a row, but also just four out of 15 when the club sent him packing.

Last season, three SM-liiga clubs fired their coaches. This year, the toll is four, and a couple of coaches may be nervous every time they get a call from their GM.

Firing the coach is not an unusual move by any means, even if the Swedish Elitserien still has the same 12 head coaches behind the bench as in the opening round games. (One GM has resigned, though). Every time a coach signs a long-term contract with a club, the management always stresses the importance of being patient, and building something big in the long-term.

Coaches are vulnerable partly because it�s practically impossible to trade players in Finland � the clubs can only add new players, an expensive exercise, but also the one most clubs do first.

Kek�l�inen had signed two defencemen, a goalie, and two forwards before axing Jortikka. K�rp�t had signed three new forwards and a defenceman. Even TPS had added a couple of defencemen to their roster between the season start and the day that Leime was let go.

And if there still are no wins, or fewer wins than expected, the hammer falls on the coach.

It�s not the end of the world, though. Most often, they can still find work in hockey, in some capacity, like Alatalo, who�s now the development director at Lukko, or Toivola, who did TV work before signing with Pelicans.

Meanwhile, the musical chairs continue, and like in the old �Candid Camera� TV show, the coach shouldn�t be surprised if sometime, somewhere, someplace when he least expects it, someone steps up to him and says, smile! You�re hired!

To be fired.

IIHF.com: Transition to Europe not easy

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:13:42 +0100

Some international men of mystery are too much of a mystery

STOCKHOLM � Every year, dozens and dozens of players travel across the Atlantic to pursue a hockey career on the other side, and every year, many of them realize halfway through the season that things haven�t gone as planned.

Austin Danger Powers

Maybe it�s the different style of hockey, maybe it�s the different language, new food, new TV shows, new teammates, new linemates, maybe the family doesn�t like the apartment, but regardless of the reason, hockey�s just not going like it should.

We�re talking about the players coming to Europe.

Even if the days when any old Canadian could just hop over the boards and play - or think he could play - in the Finnish or Swedish league are long gone, and even if the European clubs do more scouting than ever before, making the transition to European hockey isn�t always easy. Not even for Europeans returning home after years in North America.

Ask Thomas Greiss, who found himself in the Swedish Elitserien�s Bryn�s G�vle, instead of the San Jose Sharks. Greiss�s first game was a memorable one, in the nightmarish way. Just 3:42 into the first period, his first in Sweden, he let in a shorthanded goal. A minute and 58 seconds later it was 2-0. By the end of the first period, the score was 3-0 to S�dert�lje. The game ended 7-2, with Greiss making 30 saves. Right back in the saddle against AIK Stockholm, he made 26 saves as Bryn�s went down 3-0.

At the writing of this, Greiss is dead last in the goaltending statistics with a 84.5 save percentage and a 4.22 goals against average after six games.

Yevgeni Nabokov was one of the star signings to the KHL, but his 89.6 save percentage in 16 games with SKA St. Petersburg is probably not what the fans or the club management expected. When Timr� signed Ilkka Pikkarainen to a two-year deal, they did so expecting the 29-year-old Finn to score goals like he did two years ago in Finland. In 2008-09, he scored 24 goals in 54 games with HIFK Helsinki, but spent last season mostly in the New Jersey Devils system, before being assigned to the Dynamo Moscow in the KHL.

Thus far, Pikkarainen has four goals and two suspensions - three if you count the pre-season - in 17 games. A disappointment to everybody, including the player himself.

It�s not always easy to make the adjustment. This season, 33 players returned to Europe, after a varying number of years in the NHL, here broken down by league: KHL 12, Switzerland 8, Sweden 5, Finland 3, the Czech Extraliga 2, Germany 2, and Slovakia 1. Some of the return home, like Nabokov and Rickard Wallin, some to another European league, like Greiss and Pikkarainen.

�Of course, every player has his own story and it�s difficult to generalize why some players succeed and others don�t,� says Sakari Pietil�, the Chicago Blackhawks former head European scout, and an SM-liiga and U18 national team coach.

�But, scouting is still not good enough, and clubs sign players based on loose talk and rumours. They should simply see more of the player they want to sign. After all, they�re big investments for the club. Looking at old stats isn�t enough � and it�s not fair to the player, either,� he adds.

Not all signings fail. Most of them are just fine, and the players perform up to expectations, the ultimate definition of success. If you meet expectations, you�re fine, like Glen Metropolit, who returned to Switzerland and has scored 21 points in 20 games with Zug.

But expectations are tricky. When Ilkka Pikkarainen signed with Timr�, the club�s press release called him an �NHL forward�. But when he�s scored one goal in 31 games in the NHL, and has never scored 40 points in a season, can he be expected to carry the team?

�We�ve checked Thomas Greiss�s background as well as possible. I�ve spoken with Niklas Wallin, who�s played with him, and Greiss gets high praise, both as a goalie and a person,� Bryn�s�s GM Micke Sundl�v said when the club announced his signing.

Thomas Greiss is not, suddenly, a bad goalie. And he�ll probably bounce back. It�s just that Greiss had played just one full game between March 30 and his first game with Bryn�s in late October, a pre-season game with the Sharks. He�s a little rusty. He needs to learn the European game again. He needs to learn the fastest route to the arena, and get back his mojo. It takes time.

Because one thing that has changed in the last 25 years is that Europe is no longer a place where veteran players can go and collect a fat paycheck before retiring. Not just like that, anyway.

�Nobody thinks like that anymore, and the attitudes have changed in Europe as well. When a North American player walks into the dressing room, it�s nothing special anymore. He�s welcome to help the team, but he�ll have to fight for a roster spot,� says Pietil�.

�But a good AHL player can make a good career in the Finnish league. So, if the door to the NHL seems shut, the salaries, even in Finland, will probably be better than what they make in the AHL,� he adds.

Another thing that may make the transition difficult are the differences in style play. Not only the rink sizes, and how the puck is controlled, but even development of the player himself.

�If you leave Europe as a skilled junior star, and then end up in the AHL, playing in the third line with grinders, of course, you�ll lose something. On the other hand, Mikko Lehtonen left Finland as a good, young, two-way forward, and either he�s learned something new, or the chemistry in his line in Sweden is phenomenal,� Pietil� says.

Lehtonen has 12 goals and 23 points in 20 games with Skellefte� AIK in Elitserien. However, he also scored 28 points and 23 goals with the Providence Bruins in the AHL. Not too shabby.

Pietil� sums up the rules of thumb for club managers like this:

�Know what you�re buying, make sure everybody has the same expectations, and don�t count on a miracle. If a veteran player has already played a couple of seasons in a slower tempo league, it�ll be hard for him to get his legs back in a faster game,� he says.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Maybe screenwriter, novelist William Goldman was on to something profound when he described how Hollywood works when choosing which films to green light: Nobody knows anything, he wrote.

�Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what�s going to work. Every time out it�s a guess � and, if you�re lucky, an educated one.�

Good luck.

18 'Til I Die

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:14:18 +0100

Team Finland has retired Raimo Helminen's number 14 and tonight the banner was raised next to Jari Kurri's 17, the first retired number in Team FInland's history.

Raimo Helminen holds the world record in national team games played, with 331.

But is he Bryan Adams's secret twin? You tell me:

I'm confused.

Here's Bryan's tribute to "Raipe":

You're my density

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:10:51 +0200

�I quit.�

I�ve told my friends that past months just that. I quit hockey. I just don�t have the energy or the commitment anymore. Hockey just doesn�t seem to do it for me like it used to.

I�ve spent most of my life trying to get into the hockey business, get into the inside ring of things. I remember the actual moment that I set my sight on just that. My junior team had come home from a road trip on the West Coast of Finland in the middle of the night. I hadn�t played particularly well or much. I was just about to grab the door on my way into our arena to dump my hockey trunk there when a voice inside me said: �Time to move to the other side.�

That was twenty years ago.

My first season.

Between that night and today, I have, among other things, been translating hockey magazines from Norwegian into Finnish, selling a computer software to hockey coaches � �Hockey Manager,� developed by a Finnish former coach who was ten years ahead of the curve -, been Ivan Hlinka�s interpreter on his team�s Finnish tour, worked a summer at hockey pant manufacturer Tackla Canada in Orillia, Ontario, written a paper on how fans see their rivals� sponsors, and worked for the NHL during the 1994 International Challenge event in Helsinki, Finland.

It was the day before my 26th birthday, I was sitting at home, thinking about the same thing I am thinking now: What is it that really draws me to hockey? I decided that I really wanted to get in, wherever it may be.

I sent a letter to every single NHL team � there were 26 at the time � and to the league offices in New York, Toronto and Montreal. The rest of the December I waited for the mailman to deliver the news.

And he sure did. Most of the teams replied, and it was a thrill to come home and see an envelope with an NHL team logo waiting for me on the floor. Those five seconds before I opened it, and saw how the letter began, seemed long. In those five seconds, anything was possible, the dream was still alive, the doors were still open.

I got nice letters from Edmonton, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, well, you name it. I also got a very nice phone call from the NHL that got me involved with the Winnipeg Jets� Helsinki visit in 1994.

In addition to the things I listed above, I have since 1994 also painted a hospital wall white, and then hung a white sheet with the tournament logo a friend of a friend had painted on it on the wall (so that everything would be perfect when then-new commissioner Bettman came into town), done market research on European hockey cities for a European hockey league that never materialized, coached 12-year-olds for a couple of seasons, played semi-semi-competitive hockey in Finland and Sweden, traveled to numerous World Championships as a hockey tourist, translated a hockey magazine from Swedish into Finnish, helped an agent find contacts in Finland, almost got a job at the NHL, translated three books about the NHL, and nine youth hockey books.

In the past three years, I have given birth to and killed my own hockey magazine, and written for a bunch of hockey magazines and websites around the world.

I�ve covered the World Cup of Hockey, World Championships, and I�ve written way over a thousand blog entries about hockey on my own HockeyBlog � daily, through the summers - and another Finnish website I write for.

Maybe I�m just tired. Tired of lockouts, salary caps, coaches screaming at refs, tired of refs that are really bad, tired of obnoxious GMs and journalists who always know best, tired of not having a team to cheer for. Tired of reading dozens of hockey blogs every day, tired of keeping up with the third and fourth liners in teams I can hardly ever watch play.

On the other hand, as I write this, I think of the cold winter�s day in 2003 when I took the tram from outside my Helsinki apartment to the hotel where the Russian junior team stayed at, waited twenty minutes for the Russian team manager to come down and help me get in touch with Alexander Ovechkin, and then wait another twenty minutes for the two of them to reappear in the lobby for the interview.

It was in the same lobby I two years later interviewed Timo Jutila, the captain of the 1995 Team Finland that won the world championship, for a book about the team. I drove around Finland for two months, meeting every single player and the coaches to tell their story.

That same winter, an old teammate of mine and I sat through a Scotty Bowman presentation at the Swedish Hockey Symposium in Stockholm, mesmerized. I interviewed him afterwards while my friend took photos. They were all blurry but I wanted to use one in my magazine anyway because that�s what teammates do.

Looking back feels good. I just can�t think forward and feel the same pleasure.

And yet, I gravitate to hockey all the time. Last week I drove 300 miles to meet a Swedish coach for an interview, watched a game over the Internet, and two other games on TV. Today, my son and I wore Finnish national team sweaters, he the blue Tuomo Ruutu one, myself a white Arto Ruotanen one, and played some floor hockey. (That�d be the floor of my office).

Maybe it�s the January blues. The fact that the sun seems to have disappeared completely gets to me.

I am like Forrest Gump, only just not as successful. I am Michael Corleone fighting his destiny: �Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in.�

And I can�t really quit hockey.

How could I when there�s the friend asking if I could help him find tickets to games. There�s the fact that I have about a hundred hats with different hockey club logos on them so I�m always wearing one. And there�s that other friend going out with a hockey player and her asking me if I know him.

But mostly, though, it�s about seeing Canadian kids jumping on top of each other, and the Russians just staring ahead after the gold medal game. It�s Teemu Selanne in his new, long hairstyle being celebrated in Anaheim, and then getting a couple of goals. It�s the Stars� Patrik Stefan missing an empty net and the Oilers scoring seconds from that.

And it�s the crackling sound of the ice when you first step on it. The sound of the boards when you shoot the puck across the rink. It�s the game.

Hi, my name is Risto, and I�m hooked on hockey.

(Previously posted on nhl.com on Jan 7, 2007. Get Off The Post: Hockey Stories from Across the World)

Angry Swedes

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 19:14:45 +0200

... and other notes:

The Elitserien CEO Peter Gudmudsson is furious about media reports that the Los Angeles Kings want to loan defenceman Johan Fransson to SKA Petersburg in the KHL. The Swede didn�t manage to crack the NHL lineup, and instead of reporting to their AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, it was reportedly arranged that he will be loaned to Russia. The problem is, Fransson signed a five-year contract with Lule� in the Swedish Elitserien. According to Gudmundsson, if the player is sent back to Europe, his European contract should be honoured.

Former SM-liiga MVP and a Team Finland regular, Timo P�rssinen, has bounced back from the injury problems that have plagued him the last two, three years. Injury-free, the feisty forward leads the Elitserien in scoring with five goals and 10 points in nine games. There are four Finns in the Top 10 in league scoring: Skellefte� AIK�s Mikko Lehtonen has 6+3=9 points, Jukka Voutilainen 3+6=9, and veteran defenseman Janne Niinimaa 1+8=9 points, in nine games.

Another Finn making a big comeback is Link�ping�s goaltender Fredrik Norrena, who leads the league in all goaltending categories: save percentage (94.12), goals against (1.36), and shutouts (2).

IIHF.com: Good start key to success

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:41:21 +0200

Turning things around mid-season is a difficult task

STOCKHOLM � A little less than six months ago, on April 24, HV71 players skated around the Hovet Arena ice with the modern-day Swedish classic, the golden helmets, on their heads. They had just beaten Djurg�rden Stockholm in Game 6 of the Elitserien final with Teemu Laine�s OT goal just four minutes into the extra frame.

Six months ago, DIF fans were hoping to end a nine-year long wait for a title.

Both HV71 and Djurg�rden were the experts� hottest pre-season candidates to go to the final this season as well. Both clubs managed to keep their core group of players, and whatever losses to the roster they suffered, they seemed to have plugged the holes. Stefan Liv became Daniel Larsson and David Petrasek Juuso Hietanen in HV71, while Marcus Nilson became Daniel Widing and Jacob Josefsson Nils Ekman in Stockholm.

If anything, the teams seemed better than six months ago. They also started the regular season with a bang, in a final series rematch in Stockholm. Djurg�rden won the game 3-2, convincing everybody of its strength.

Seven games later, though, HV71 was tenth and Djurg�rden 11th, in a 12-team strong league. Another game later, wins by both HV71 and Djurg�rden, they had climbed to eighth and ninth, still disappointing.

HV71 has just one regulation time win this season, over Skellefte� AIK, but its 1-4-4 record (with two OT wins and two shootout wins) gives it 11 points. Djurg�rden, on the other hand, has gone 3-6-2 (with the ties being two shootout losses) for 11 points. Last season�s silver medalists have also lost both their derbies, first to AIK, 5-2, then to S�dert�lje, 3-1.

And while ten games is not even fifth of a season in Elitserien, the fans do have some cause for concern. A good start is important, because for one reason or another, climbing up from the basement has proved to be a difficult task in the past.

In 2006, the teams that had settled into the five last spots in the standings after ten games, were also the five last teams in the final standings, with the three last teams even occupying the identical spots. In 2008, Bryn�s was dead last after ten games, and dead last after 55 games. In fact, the four last placed teams had already found their places in the basement after ten games. Last year, the five last-placed teams after ten games only swapped places with each other so that Modo and Timr� clawed their way up out of the relegation series.

Turning it around mid-season is difficult. When expectations aren�t met, new players get signed and coaches get fired when the club management - often desperately - tries to get the team going, sometimes creating a bigger mess.

There�s hope, though. In 2007, HV71 had another slow start in the Elitserien. It had just two wins and nine points in ten games but it finished the season with 23 wins in 45 games, and second in the standings. Regular season winner, F�rjestad, was eighth after ten games, with four wins.

Maybe digging their way out of the hole took too much energy because neither one made it past the semi-finals that year.

Energy levels may explain the sluggish starts of the Swedish finalists this year, too. There have been speculations about the European Trophy draining their players of the energy that they would have needed in the regular season games. And maybe there is something to it.

Of the current top seven teams in the Elitserien, only Link�ping played in the European Trophy, and they never made it past the opening round whereas HV71 went all the way to the final, which it lost to Eisb�ren Berlin. The German powerhouse, in turn, is currently seventh in the DEL.

In Finland, one European Trophy team, HIFK, tops the standings, but the three that made it to the final round? TPS is dead last. K�rp�t, a team that has the highest-paid team, and a pre-season favourite to win the title is 12th, after 11 games. Jokerit is sixth.

Tappara, a club that saw its head coach resign just ten days before the regular season start, is currently fifth in the SM-liiga standings. Tappara forward Timo Koskela was quoted as saying that he was happy that they didn�t make it to the final round in the European Trophy.

�It was better for us to be at home and have an off weekend than to be in Austria and play. We got off to a good start because we were fresh,� he said.

Coincidence? Maybe. But whatever the reason for the teams� slow starts is, they�d better start winning in a hurry if they want to stay in the race. Three points in the fall is worth the same as three points in the spring.

NHL Premiere

Sat, 9 Oct 2010 11:45:00 +0200

I'll be covering the games in Sweden, and will try to collect links to my pieces here. So, refresh often.

You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest.

Here we go:
P�hlsson an underrated, but appreciated piece for Jackets
Vermette, Brassard lead Jackets past Malm�
Quite a climb through coaching ranks for Arniel
Jackets doing best to learn Arniel's system
Columbus takes solace in hard work
Niemi helps Sharks get off to a good start
OT victory sends Blue Jackets home happy

Also, check out David Lozo's Taking Stock-holm blog, I made a few cameos there, too.

The arena. Globen.

IIHF.com: Ilves rebooting

Sat, 2 Oct 2010 16:07:27 +0200

For Finland�s winningest club, the only way is up

TAMPERE, Finland � The people of Tampere like to think of their city as the cradle of Finnish hockey, for a good reason. The first game was played there, the first artificial ice was built there, and the first indoor arena was built in Tampere in 1965, in time for the World Championship it hosted that year.

Rask2, not 2-ka.

The Hakamets� arena is still the home for the city�s two SM-liiga teams, Tappara and Ilves. Entering the arena, Tappara players go to the left, Ilves players to the right, and hardly does anyone ever cross that line.

But the city�s hockey fans haven�t been spoiled with too much success lately. Tappara reached the final three years in a row in 2001-02, winning title in 2003, but a seven-year-wait may seem long for a club that won five championships in the 1980s. And Ilves, the club with 16 Finnish titles, hasn�t won the championship since 1985. In fact, that�s their only SM-liiga title, as the league was formed in 1975.

Last season, Ilves reached the bottom when it ended up in the relegation series against Jokipojat, the winner of Mestis, the division below SM-liiga. The winds of change had been brewing for a while, but last spring, they turned into a mild storm.

The CEO left, former Finnish national team coach Raimo Summanen was hired to write up an analysis of the club�s situation, with recommendations, a new director of sports operations was hired, a new coaching staff was put in place, and for this season, a new team was built.

�We want to do things in a different way. For years, Ilves has fired a lot of players in the spring and signed new players to take their places. Some years, the club has been building a fast team, other years a hard-hitting one, and wasted a lot of resources. We just can�t afford that,� says Seppo Hiitel�, the new director of sports operations, and the head coach of that 1985 team.

�We can possibly turn this thing around fairly quickly because we�re talking about a game after all, and sport is all about developing players. That�s what we want to focus on now,� he adds.

Players like Joonas Rask. Last season, the 20-year-old forward played 43 games and collected 19 points. He also represented Finland in the 2010 IIHF World U20 Championship. This season, the younger brother of the Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask, is a little bigger, and hopefully a little better.

�Of course it helped that I got to play those games in the SM-liiga last season. I�ve added a little muscle on my body over the summer, so that the defencemen can�t throw me around as much as last season,� he says.

This season, Rask has three goals in six games, and Ilves six points in six games, enough for 11th place in the SM-liiga. But the season is young, and anything is possible.

Last spring, Rask also played with the Ilves major junior team during the playoffs, and helped the team to bronze medals. Ilves has traditionally had great junior teams - and the club�s alumni include several high-quality players.

Unfortunately, not all with Ilves. Like Perttu Lindgren, currently on top of the SM-liiga scoring, plays for Lukko Rauma.

�The junior organization has probably done a better job than the SM-liiga organization. But we can improve on all fronts,� admits Hiitel�, who says that he won�t give the coaching staff free reign on how the team should play.

�I respect coaches, and always will respect coaching, but as the club�s representative, I have to think of continuity, as well. A coach is always looking for a new job elsewhere, and may not have the patience with the young players that is required. Ilves has to be patient,� he says.

This season, 14 players on Ilves�s 31-man strong roster were born in 1990 or later, and only four have turned 30.

�We have to be better by our third season, that�s our goal. We won�t get our credibility back right away, so we have to keep working consistently now. Of course, we�ll take every game seriously, in the moment, but we�re also building our future,� says Hiitel�.

To be as glorious as the past.

IIHF.com: AIK�s return to Elitserien

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 11:14:00 +0200

Stockholm team now has to prove that they belong

STOCKHOLM � The prodigal son is back in the Elitserien. He tried to conquer the world, wasted all his money, was banished from the inner circles of Swedish hockey, but now he�s back. And he�s welcome by all, even his fiercest archrival.

AIK, the big, bad AIK, is back in Elitserien.

The ghosts of the past may come back to haunt AIK

Six years ago, AIK had been relegated to the third-tier Division I, with its economy in shatters � that was the reason for the relegation � with no team, no sponsors. All they had was a blank sheet of paper, as Anders Gozzi, the club�s director of hockey operations, and former AIK player, says in his column in the club�s guide.

While the club�s junior system needed some improvement, there was some potential. In their first game in Division I, AIK used two goalies: Jonas Gustavsson, now with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Gustaf Wesslau, with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Also, the NHL lockout sent Gozzi two key players to work with in the qualification round games: Mattias Norstr�m and Georges Laraque.

They sold out the Hovet arena for the last game of the season.

AIK has the most famous, or infamous, fans in Sweden. The fans have come and gone in all the years and AIK has averaged about 3,000 spectators a game, which is in the top 5 in Allsvenskan, the league below Elitserien.

The fans will carry the team, but the fans can also bury the team. On the football side, AIK fans have quarterly development discussions with the coaches, and in at least one public instance, have made decisions on who gets to play and who not.

AIK�s first game of this season, their comeback to Elitserien, was a testament to the fans� loyalty.

Singing, chanting, taking over the stands behind the opponent�s net, throwing confetti, cheering their boys on for full 60 minutes, the fans made AIK�s comeback into an event.

The crowd cheered when the players skated to the ice, it pushed the players through first period, even when Magnus Johansson gave Link�ping a 1-0 lead by scoring in the last second of the period.

Richard Gynge, AIK�s leading scorer last year, tied the game right after the intermission, and anything was possible again.

The fans mean well, but sometimes, like on the opening night, the cheering also makes the players chase the puck, try too hard, and finish checks too late, taking them out of position. The players mean well, and they want to give their all, and sometimes it translates into a needless penalty.

In the end, Link�ping beat AIK 5-1, almost easily, but at least the 15 Elitserien rookies in AIK�s lineup survived their debut. Now they know what to expect.

The fans kept singing until after the game, and there�s no questioning their passion for the club. But their love is not unconditional, and if the team gets off to a rocky start... it�s going to be tough love.

Coach Roger Melin was asked whether he thinks that the team belongs in the Elitserien.

He laughed, and said: �Well, we�re here, so we�ll just have to show that we do.�

It�s very likely that the team does have a tough season ahead of itself. The club�s economy is still not up level with the top clubs, and it operates with the smallest salary budget in Elitserien, about �3 million.

Besides their opening game loss, they�ve beat Fr�lunda in overtime, and lost to S�dert�lje in overtime. The attendance dove from �sold out� � and officially 6,800 spectators � to 3,500 in their second game.

AIK also spends an additional �200,000 for event security � to avoid the incidents that happened with AIK�s football fans and forced the club to play in front of empty stadiums on more than one occasion.

Sometimes, the fans that bleed black and gold, just bleed too much.

And if AIK survives this season, and can build on its success, and work according to their long-term plan, and build the team around Stockholm players, the future looks fairly bright. A Stockholm team won TV-pucken, the major development camp in Sweden, with four AIK players on the roster, and one more on the other Stockholm team. (On the other hand, Djurg�rden had 13 players on the two teams).

But for now, AIK brings a lot of energy to Elitserien. Djurg�rden, their nemesis, went to the Elitserien final last season and on Thursday, beat the reigning champion, HV71, in their regular season opener. Even then, their fans are focused on the first Stockholm derby of the new season, on September 28.

It�s been eight years and eight months since their last derby. That time Djurg�rden, then the reigning champion, beat AIK 6-4 in front of 6,978 spectators.

The September game will also be played in the Globe Arena that seats 13,000, instead of Hovet, the teams� regular home arena that seats about 5000 less. Even in the big arena it will most likely be a sellout.

It will be loud.