Djurgården is suddenly starting to look like the team everyone thought it was.
The match was a 4-2 away to a jubilant BIK Karlskoga side, despite the absence of twelve regular players.
And it’s time to start talking about the Garpen effect.
I didn’t see all the games Djurgården played in the first half, but enough to see the team lose.
He cost coach Joachim Wagerfall his job and Johann Garbenlöf came in.
The coach who has just gone down in history as Sweden’s worst ever captain.
To some extent self-inflicted, but also a victim of circumstances.
Now, I wouldn’t lift Garbin to the heavens after just five games, but I’m happy for him.
I’ve probably never seen Djurgården such a team as this evening, with the caveat that I haven’t seen it all.
Despite the loss of five of the world’s best juniors preparing for the JVM and seven regular players led by Linus Klasen and John Norman.
Or should we say precisely because of that?
This group of Hockeyettan rookies and loan players won one of the toughest games of the series.
It was as organized as it was sacrifice.
The unknown Djurgården stepped forward
Personally, I was convinced that BIK Karlskoga would win this, considering everyone who was outside Djurgården.
Especially after Marcus Modig scored a 1-0 numerical advantage and broke the goal drought about halfway through the match. It was 1–1 and 2–1 to BIK Karlskoga before the second period ended.
But the turnaround now came almost immediately in the final period, when defender Kevin Carlson sent a 2-2 lead on the heels of a numerical advantage.
Then 3-2 when Wiktor Nilsson scored the ball brilliantly played by young David Blomgren.
Founder Olle Liss then finished with 4-2.
But it was the unknown Djurgården who stepped forward.
Garpen’s problem is how to manage his stars when they come back and how to distribute the ice time.
It takes a lot of hitting to dare to bench some of Allsvenskan’s highest-paid players.
But some may be worth it.
Now it’s only time for the first half in allsvenskan hockey and a lot can happen before the start of the playoffs in mid-March.
Then it is not possible to turn a blind eye to the fact that the two times Allsvenskan hockey has had playoff games, it is the series wins that have gone up.
The table does not lie.
Even in the SHL, the SM Gold Medal has been won by league winners the most times.
But at the same time, I can sense that Djurgården has ended up in a fairly comfortable position so far in the season.
They don’t have the same pressure on them as before the series started.
They’re about to be completely wiped out so far, even though they’re third in the series.
This should not be underestimated.
The advantage of being the underdog
That “us against the world” feeling that Timo Latynen darted into Malmö who hated everyone there in the early 1990s.
He finished with double SM golds in 1992 and 1994.
Being the underdog has its perks.
But the current situation is that Modo already has one foot in the SHL after a great fall.
They weren’t the favorites when the season started and I remember the opening meeting of Allsvenskan hockey when the coaches predicted how the table would end.
Bjorkloven then took first place, ahead of Djurgården and Modo in third.
There were few who saw the greatness of what sporting director Henrik Gradin and coach Matthias Carlin did there in Örnsköldsvik.
Now Modu was under pressure from Tingsryd, but managed a 15th consecutive win when Malmö loanee Lukas Wernblom decided it was 3-2 in the mud.
No, nothing can be done about Modo.
For Djurgården it’s about second place.
You just have to live with it.
AIK still lost away from home.
The White Horse now won at home 5-2 after three late goals.
And AIK averaged 0.31 points in thirteen games played and didn’t take a single three-pointer.
It’s historically poor.
The two jumbo teams of yesteryear, newcomers Väsby and Troja-Ljungby, were much better than home.