Season recap: Brynäs IF

Table Rank: 12

Josef Ingman's comment: "Of course I think, and probably the whole club does as well, that it is a failure. At least we had a goal to reach the playoffs, but we couldn't even succeed in doing that. Failure is probably a pretty good word to describe the season."

Is there anything in particular you are most disappointed with?

– Ending up in no-man's land is tough. You are not terrible, but not great either. For my own part, if I may say so, I expect that when things go bad, we will come together as a group and do what is required. Listening to the coaches and following the gameplan. Our self-confidence wasn't good enough to handle it and I feel that's disappointing. We turned it around in a few games, but there was no consistency.

You changed coach in January, when Magnus Sundquist was let go and the assistant coaches Ove Molin and Mikael Holmqvist took over. What effect do you think that had?

– Whether you change coaches or there is some other big change, you get some new energy and it becomes a bit of a new start. We came out with new energy, but unfortunately I think it was a little too late. Regardless of whether Magnus (Sundquist) had to go or not it felt like it wasn't really working for us this season. I do not want to put anything on him, but we as a team have not succeeded. Him leaving was probably an attempt to find a solution to the problem. It got a little better, but it wasn't enough.

The club had big goals for the season. There was talk of playoffs this year and four golds in the ten upcoming seasons. Did that affect the team?

– The goals that the club sets are not something we are directly affected by. We were focusing on taking the SM gold this season. That is the goal of every player. When we fail to do so, we are disappointed, but whether the club sets its goals is up to them. It is probably a motivation for us and our fans.

You heard it a few times during the season, but 22 times you let in the first goal of the match. Not once did you succeed in turning it into victory after regulation. Do you have any theory as to why this happened?

– Although we did hear it a few times, it was nothing we thought about. We had a problem that when we let in goals we had a tendency for it to affect us negatively. When we let in the first goal we might not be able to come back. It's just a thought I have but it doesn't have to be that way. It is possible that it got into our heads a bit.

Powerplay: 22,35 percent (7)

Ingman's comment: “In the beginning we had a very bad powerplay. Whether it was because we practiced too little together or if it didn't really fit the formations I don't know. When desperation came in, "hey, this is useless, why isn't it working?". When that desperation finally came, it turned us around. I think partly it had to do with attitude and partly because they found the right positions and got to practice it more. It got really good in the end."

Penalty Kill: 72,89 percent (12)

Ingman's comment: “It was one of the parts of our game we talked about a lot during the season. It is difficult to put indentify specific things that made it bad. If I'm going to speculate maybe it was because we focused too much on details sometimes and that we didn't simply play. We were perhaps thinking too much about the variants of the opponents and that meant it didn't come as naturally. That can happen. On the whole, it's based on the fact that we did not have enough confidence in games five against five and that transfered to the penalty kill as well. "

Offensively, number of goals scored: 132 (9)

Ingman's comment: “The problem there was that we were up and down. Some games we could score five, six goals and some games we got shutout. We didn't have that feeling that we were always scoring goals. If the opponents scored the first goal and we were chasing, it might be that we didn't get a single bounce. We had a problem scoring goals when the game wasn't going our way."

Defensively, number of goals scored: 168 (12)

Ingman's comment: “We had problems in our own zone. I personally think we didn't follow the game plan that was set. That's not to say that it was me or someone else. We did not follow our game plan well enough. Then it was unclear at first you might say to some extent, but above all it was we who did not follow our game plan. Then it became strenuous in our own zone. Then you have to score a lot of goals going forward and we didn't quite step up as much as we should've."

Home Record 41 points (11)

Ingman's comment: “Our home games were our strength. Although we should have taken even more points, our game at home was clearly solid."

Away game: 19 points (13)

Ingman's comment: “Really bad. I think we wanted too much. On the away side, one may have the attitude of not letting in any goal and that it is good to have 0-0 or 1-1 game in the third period. Too often, I think we had the attitude that we would go out and run over the opponent on their home ice. Then it becomes easy to let in goals. Then there is a little flaw in the idea that you should have on the away plan, I think, and that we must put on players."

Blocked shots: 720 (1)

Ingman's comment: “It shows that even though the game did not work and the goals were not scored as we wanted, we fought hard out there anyway. There was no shortage of trying. There is nothing that shows a greater will than blocking shots. Although we wanted it to go well and we wanted us to have confidence, we did what we could by blocking shots. Often when things go bad for a team, people say there is no will. Then check how many shots we have blocked. You don't block a shot if you don't want something, I think."

Brynäs…

…Point leader: Anton Rödin, 46 points (14+32)

…most penalty minutes: Anton Rödin, 73 min

…players with the most game winning goals: Emil Molin, 5 GWG.

…most hits: Jonathan Sigalet, 80

…players with the most on ice average per match: Marcus Björk, 22:38 min/match.