2010 1031 A Swedish Halloween

Public Skating

This week was the arrival of Shane and more new things. Shane came one week ago and has played with the team this week. On Monday since there was no practice and we finished school early, we decided to go to the public skating at Hagernas with a stick and puck. I went along with my dad, Erik, Mans, and Gustav. This was the first time my dad had skated in two months. He enjoyed it even though he was wearing different skates. This was very fun but tiring. We skated with only some of our pads on because that is how they do it here and it is easier. The next two days featured some more training before our second league game and Shane's first game. Our team played well and we beat an average team 9-0. Shane scored one goal and an assist in his first game. On Friday, our team did some running during training. We ran about three kilometers with breaks in between. I had just ate before training so once I had a lead in the group, I lost it on each of the three runs. Erik won two of them. After that we did some more work before a difficult on-ice training. On Saturday, Shane, Niklas, Erik, Calle, and I were planning to go to another public skating in the day. However, the ice was double-booked so we ended up just playing NHL11 on XBox for a couple hours. Later on I went to an optional practice with only several players there. Erik did not go because he was resting for a couple of '96 games that he played today. However it was still fun. The '96 team won the tournament easily that they played in today while I was at a three and a half hour practice. The practice was fun and we also practiced some technique during it. When I came back today I realized that it is Halloween. Then I remember that they do not celebrate it here in Sweden. We also changed our clocks and it gets dark at 4:30 already in October! Now I will go to bed and rest before a camp next week with practices during the nights.

2010 1024 Unexpected Arrival

These are some pictures of my dog, Fenway back in the United States. He is a little over three years old.

On Friday, I had my first snow in Sweden. I woke up to about two centimeters of snow (about one inch) the other day. This was a big surprise to me because it was only October and it was not in the forecast. We ended up with about four centimeters or just under two inches. It was fun to play in and to throw snowballs. However, after a day in a half it had already melted and it was time to play the first league game of the year against Djurgarden. We were ready and consistently played better to earn the 7-1 victory. Today, I planned on sleeping in before going to meet Shane at the first practice. However, I was shocked when my dad opened my door and woke me up. He was not supposed to come for three more weeks. I thought I was in a dream the first ten minutes he was here. Soon I realized he was real and is going to stay until Tuesday morning and leave with Shane's dad. I was happy to see my dad in the surprise. He brought some sticks for Erik and Calle so they are very happy. We are just leaving to go meet Shane for his first practice. Above are some pictures of my dog who is staying with some friends back home. He is a fun yellow lab. We have three practices this week before another league game next weekend. 

2010 1021 Two More Weeks

Another Picture From Karlstad

The last two weeks I have been busy with hockey as usual and have had extra studing to do for Swedish. School is going well and I am learning a lot of Swedish at school and home. I am improving as a hockey player due to the higher number of practices and the physical training is also helping. We have had four training matches and one tournament the last two weeks as well. There was one training match with the 2nd team that we won easily, 6-0. It was my turn to be captain for this game. I played pretty well and had one or two assists. The same weekend we played a tough team called Nacka that we lost previously to in the Djurgarden tournament and tied in August. This time we were better prepared and won 3-0. Our goalie played well and I did too. However, Erik and I were a little tired for this game because we went to a play/musical the night before. The play was a good experience even though it went pretty late. After another week of hard practices we had a tournament with the 2nd team. Our first game was Friday night against the same Nacka team that we had just beat. However, we did not have the same team as the time we beat them and we lost 5-0. This was frustrating but we came back the next day and tied another team 3-3. We could have won the game but they fought back late in the game to earn the tie. This put us in a bad situation. Going into the lat game we had to make up a twelve goal differential against the team we had just tied to qualify for the semifianls. We came out weak but played the rest of the game very well to win 6-1. I played well and had a few assists. This meant that the powerful Nacka team would have to win by seven goals for us to move on to the semifinals. If Nacka did win in the blowout, we were the next game so we had to be dressed and ready. When we went into the locker room to get dressed just in case, the score was 5-0 Nacka. They needed to score two goals in ten minutes. The other team held them off for what seemed like forever before Nacka scored the 6th goal. However, there was only one minute left and they needed to score again. Our team was in the locker room getting ready for the next game. The coaches did not want us to think about the game going on, just the possible game that we might play. It was hard not to listen what was going on outside the room. All of a sudden we hear the puck hit the post a second before the buzzer sounds. That meant that we had to get undressed and play the 5th/6th place game in three hours. We won the game 4-3 and I had many oppurtunities to score, including a breakaway with most of the net open. Nacka eventually won the tournament, giving up one goal in the whole tournament. The next day we played Huddinge who was supposed to be the best team in Sweden. We played very well defensively and escaped with a 2-1 victory. We might be the best team in Sweden now that we beat Huddinge. Yesterday we had pictures which were cool before travelling to play the Arlanda Wings. We beat them 4-0 in Karlstad but it was different this time. They had some older players and won 5-1. We played flat and had a bad first period in this game. We have our first league game Saturday against Djurgarden before Shane comes from the USA on Sunday. Shane was on my team last year and this summer. He is staying with Niklas Odell who is a goalie on Taby HC.

2010 1007 Pictures and Game

On Monday, my dad and I were invited to join a teammate from the hockey team and eat dinner at their house in Vaxholm. It was about a thirty minute drive on the mainland before the ferry. They use a ferry to transport the cars and people to the island where they live. This surprised me because I have never seen this before, especially not in the United States. The ferry took about five minutes and the drive on the island took about ten minutes. The island was beautiful and there were only about 250 people living on it. They had a nice house on the island. Yesterday, we played our first game since the tournament in Karlstad against Transgund which is a team from southern Stockholm. With the traffic it took about forty-five minutes to get to the rink. We warmed up in the dark as it is starting to get dark around six in Stockholm already. Once dressed we had to wait for another fifteen minutes due to bad ice conditions behind the nets. We played flat for most of the game which was dissapointing. However, we won 5-3 and had forty shots to their nineteen. Tomorrow we are going to a play and might have a game or a practice on Saturday.

2010 1005 Karlstad

Karlstad Arena

This last week on Thursday after school, the Svensson's family, a teammate, my dad, and I drove from Taby to Karlstad for our biggest hockey tournament yet. The drive took four hours which is not that hard for me because in the United States we drive four hours to get to half of the teams in our league. However, in Sweden they are not used to driving more than one hour to go to hockey since mostly all the teams are in or around Stockholm. There were twelve of the best teams from Sweden in this tournament. We would play three games on Friday instead of going to school. We played very well and won 6-1, 4-3, and 10-0 against three decent teams. On Saturday, we would follow that up with 4-0 and 2-1 wins. The last game of the day I played very well and actually won player of the game. This gave us the #1 seed and a great chance to win the Oktobercupen. Since our games were over early on Saturday, some of us went out to lunch/dinner before going to the professional hockey game in Karlstad. You can see the arena in the picture above. There were two rinks that the organizers used for the tournament. One was small, but the other one was the same rink that the professional team uses. This was where we played most of our games. About eight thousand people could fit in it during the professional team plays. The team was called Farjestad and were playing a team from Modo, Sweeden. The teams were not nearly as good as teams in the National Hockey League but the game was still fun to see because everything was so different. Farjestad ended up winning 2-0 on two weak goals. We then came back to the hotel and went to sleep so we were prepared for the semifinal match the next day. We played pretty good and won 3-2. However, we took eight penalties and were a little tired for the championship game against the host team, Farjestad. This team was not so talented, but they played very well defensively as a team and scratched out a 1-0 game to win the championship. They made our team get very frustrated and take more penalties. The game was very devensive as the shots were only 14-8 in favor of them. Farjestad also won the Elite Cup and will be the favorite to win more tournaments in the future. However, they can  be defeated by us in the next tournament in January. We wanted to win gold but will take silver because we had a great tournament up to the last game. It was fun to play in the big arena with all the advertisements on the ice and the boards. I also enjoyed my dad visiting me the last week and watching the games as he left this morning. He will be back in late November to visit again. This week we have more practices, but will not have a tournament on the weekend for the first time in over a month.