Advice to HV71: “They should have learned”
Published 2024-03-15 17.08
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Djurgården fought for its life to avoid the anxiety qualifier in 2022.
It was their downfall, according to Joakim Fagervall, 55.
– If I ended up there today, I would have made a different choice, says the coach at the time.
- Joakim Fagervall, former coach of Djurgården, believes that teams facing a bottom battle should be well prepared and deal with the tough mental pressure instead of desperately chasing points.
- He emphasizes that relegation to the Hockey Allsvenskan is extra tough because of the financial gap between the leagues.
- He also suggests changes to the qualifying mechanism to reduce pressure on teams and increase mobility between leagues.
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Joakim Fagervall remembers back to the second of April 2022.
– Here I stand with most of the champions, and I can go out with them. It was an unpleasant feeling when it did happen.
He took over Djurgården at the end of January 2022. At the time, the team was last in the SHL, with eleven points up to safe ground. Despite the fact that Djurgården just beat Timrå twice at the end of the regular season and crawled past their future qualifying opponent in the table with two points, there was never any talk.
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full screen Joakim Fagervall. Photo: Bildbyrån
He would have done it differently
Timrå won 4–0 in matches.
– There is only one thing I would have done differently today, if I had ended up there again. Then I had a discussion with the association. Should we prepare to play this qualifier instead of chasing it to the last game like we did? We got hit, we won a lot at the end in the regular season. But we went on the canines for the last ten rounds of the series. We did everything to avoid that torment of hell.
He says it’s a balancing act and wonders if chasing the last straw was worth it.
– Timrå prepared. They were much, much, much more prepared than we were once it started. I would say we were without a chance in four games. And that was the mental aspect we had no chance in. Today I had stopped hunting and started preparing, because you get too little time for that. In this preparation phase, the results may still bounce your way, but you have to go in with the mindset “this is what we’re going through”. I think Malmö with Tomas Kollar and his crew handled it fantastically well last year when they beat Brynäs.
Fagervall notes that you have to like the situation, but…
– Anyone who says that you can enjoy matches like this… I think that is qualified bullshit. “It’s matches like this you want to play”. I don’t think anyone wants to play matches like that, if I’m going to be absolutely lovely. Then you say that “this is what you compete for”. It is not at all. You don’t compete to play a bottom battle, you compete to play a top battle.
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full screen Photo: Jimmy Wixtröm
“That can be the problem for many”
He thinks for a while and continues:
– I think that may be the problem for many. That you tell yourself that it is something other than what it really is. Hockey is still a bit of fun, but the mental aspect with the associations talking about being forced to lay off people is tough. Or you know that yourself. You don’t have to have a lot of student debt to calculate that they will minimize in the association in every way.
How do you approach the mental aspect as a coach?
– We leaders thought that perhaps you should rather de-dramatize it and not make any difference to a normal regular season match. At the same time, you want to be like that cursed prepared for all the details. You may be a little extra prepared and too much information is given. This too! And this too! You have to try to make it as natural as possible.
If Fagervall had been allowed to change the qualification mechanism, he wants the last in the SHL and the winner of the hockey Allsvenskan (which is chosen after a final between the first and second in the table) to change places straight away. In addition, the runner-up in the SHL can still qualify against the Hockey Allsvenskan runners-up.
– Then it’s not the whole damn world to leave and take a new bet because two teams can go up. I myself remember when I was in Björklöven, we broke the Swedish record with 121 points. It was the year of the pandemic and I’m crying when I think about it. I cry tears for all of Umeå that we didn’t go up that year.
pullquoteIt’s elite sport at its best – but that doesn’t mean you can’t find it damn hard
The large financial gap between the series makes the relegation extra tough.
– You have to go there and look people in the eye after you have made sure that they have lost their jobs. It is not easy to put pressure on all 18-19-year-olds who are going to play hockey. Even if you are 50 years old, the pressure is just as great, but you handle it in different ways.
At the same time, surely this is elite sport when it is put to its peak?
– Well, absolutely! And somewhere you have to be able to handle it. Most people do too. But that doesn’t mean you can think it’s damn hard.
Hope that HV71 has learned
He points out that it is tough to lose a seventh and decisive semi-final as well.
– Then no one longs for the outdoor grill.
But in the heat of hell do you long for the grill?
– Yes, the feeling of “hell, it worked out”. But poor bastards that it didn’t work out for. Everyone knows everyone in the team. You don’t wish a summer like that on anyone.
On Friday, the qualifiers begin between second-placed HV71 and Oskarshamn, who have been cut off from the SHL for a long time. For HV71’s sake, Fagervall hopes that they have set themselves up for qualifying even before the chance to avoid it was gone in theory.
– They have gone out once, so they should have learned their lesson. They are perhaps more prepared because they have done it once, says Joakim Fagervall.
2024-03-17 01:34:42
#Fagervall #chance
