During the finals I began power ranking our players’ playoff season. I’m too invested in and biased towards Luleå to rank Färjestad, however I think Åslund for MVP was… well, the most stomachable Färjestad candidate. He averaged almost five minutes less than Omark and beat him with one more point over two more games played in the playoffs. I think Omark, yes from the losing team, should have been MVP. He had a Forsberg in 1994-like run, in a way, however with admittedly a much superior supporting cast. For a Färjestad candidate I think Tomas Mitell or even Lasse Falk, the former Djurgården and Frölunda head coach with no relation to Färjestad, deserved the MVP status as the latter’s dead puck era philosophy which the league has tried to bury in the past with rule changes and more rigorous enforcement of obstruction penalties for the last few years, was premiered by the zealless refereeing in the playoffs. If I’m to try and forget about the bitter feelings, I’d say De La Rose would have been a deserving MVP for his relentless work on limiting Omark to 3 points over the finals, although I think Andreasson’s vanishing act with regards to his scoring did the ultimate trick. When Färjestad was dialing in on Omark over the games Andreasson missed, it’s remarkable how that freed up extra space for Einar Emanuelsson to amend his woeful season at just the right time. I’m not so convinced Omark was shut down by Färjestad’s grinders as much as he was by Andreasson losing his mojo. Awarding De La Rose the MVP would have been fair though: hooking and grabbing was the name of the gold medal winning game, the league should not prevaricate on it, just because other teams have tried to adapt to another reality.
I guess I cannot not be bitter.
But Åslund, yeah, he’s a fine candidate.
Firstly, he’s a likable player on a distinctly unlikable team. Great two way player, humble guy, and provided very timely scoring in the finals. Guy actually led his team in blocked shots and was second only to Erik Gustafsson for either team in the finals. Over the entire playoffs, he’s third behind Gustafsson and Engsund, and blocked 7 more shots than the next one (De La Rose) in that regard, while leading the playoffs in points. I can’t pretend that he wasn’t a worthy MVP, I just thought Omark deserved his due as the best player in the SHL.
Alright, enough of this, here’s my Luleå player ranking for these playoffs:
- Linus Omark
- Erik Gustafsson
- Oscar Engsund
- Sami Lepistö
- Joel Lassinantti
- Julius Honka
- Einar Emanuelsson
- Juhani Tyrväinen
- Pontus Andreasson
- Isac Brännström
Färjestad is the first team of the playoffs relatively able to neutralize Omark (3 assists in 5 games), through relentless shadowing efforts. I think part of why they’ve been able to limit him, is the absence of Andreasson on the line for two games, and his scoring drying up after the quarterfinals in general, but in the finals particularly. I still had Andreasson ranked highly before the finals, but he’s sunk like a rock since. You can’t miss 6 playoff games and be ranked that high, but he deserves huge credit for his clockwork scoring in the quarterfinals and ability to protect the puck on a level near Omark’s.
All Luleå defensemen deserve praise for their playoffs. Sami Lepistö’s ability to balance solid defense and elite offense from the blueline has been amazing, however I feel I have to drop him a few rungs for a few glaring hiccups in the finals especially, where either he failed to close out his side of the offensive blue line leading to counter attacks, failing to clear the zone prior to Färjestad’s OT home victory, and most pointedly a lack of discipline which had him lead Luleå in PIMs in the finals with 14 to runner-up Shinnimin’s 8.
I’m tempted to promote Engsund even higher, as I think his play off the puck has been absolutely flawless and path finding for us at times when the team were struggling to get out of their own end. And it hurt trying to play deep into Luleå’s zone: Engsund led the playoffs with 41 hits, 8 more than Färjestad’s Ejdsell. Then there’s Honka, who I think took another step in the finals and utilized what’s arguably our best shot from the blueline a bit more often, and had two game winners.
But at the end of the day, Erik Gustafsson gets the nod for 2nd MVP of our run to the finals. Call it hyperbole, but he’s Lidström light as far as I’m concerned. A heart and soul captain for us, does almost everything well but focuses mainly on nailing down the fundamentals and letting his partner go on adventures. Gustafsson led the playoffs in blocked shots with 36, was second to Växjö’s Joel Persson (who was swept, with 3/4 games decided in overtime) in average ice time, led Luleå with +9 for the playoffs and +6 in the finals, and put up 7 points to boot, including an amusing Kent Nilsson-esque goal.
For the rest of the ranking, Joel Lassinantti of course has been a very comforting presence in net with I think exactly two outright
stolen games: once in a 2-0 away win versus Frölunda that must have been beyond disheartening for them, and once in game 5 versus Färjestad which ended in a 4-0 blowout, however was 1-0 several minutes into the third period when Lassinantti made an impossible desperation stick save on an empty net to preserve the lead.
As the defensive conscience and crucially the faceoff winner on Omark’s line, in addition to his gritty physical presence, I cannot ignore Tyrväinen on this list, however he hasn’t been quite the dominant factor he was against Skellefteå when we stretched that series to seven games the previous spring. Those seven games he clocked in at 15 hits, and memorably scared the molasses out of Skellefteå’s defensemen as they were retrieving pucks along their halfboards: over the 2022 playoffs he’s tallied 15 hits over all three series combined. I’ve wondered if he’s been playing through injury, but it’s also quite possible he’s felt the need to temper his physical play following suspensions in the regular season.
I gave Einar the nod over Tyrväinen with a whole batch of finals bias: he brought his game back at just the right time, weaved through Färjestad’s stingy defense and scored all of his five goals in the finals. Probably the most likable player in the world, and the most heartwarming of redemption stories.
I weighed between Brännström and Connolly for the 10th spot on my list. Brännström gets the nod for his gritty, hard working and moderately skilled two way play, and particularly for his tendency to win the puck, skate it up the ice and waste time off the clock while allowing his teammates a line change on the PK.
Biggest playoff disappointments:
Komarek, he must have played injured, right? During his brief stint with us before covid closed out the 2020 playoffs, he single-handedly fixed the power play which was the big question mark on that iteration of the team. He did miss games due to injury, but in the games since he returned, he’s just looked off. The PP got nothing done in the finals, but when Komarek’s unit was on, that’s when you knew it would go scoreless.
Also, Fröberg: he pulls his weight defensively, but is also rather inconsistent, and prone to mistakes. Offensively, he never really lived up to his reputation, and as the player we saw in Växjö (particularly, as we knew we couldn’t expect him to carry a team following the HV71 stint).
