A whole city and an entire county are loading up for what could be Luleå's second SM gold throughout history.
Victory over Brynäs on Thursday in the sixth SM final and the celebration can begin.
Then Stefan "Skuggan" Nilsson will not be present. The 1996 gold captain was fired as general manager (sports manager) last year after eight years on the post and was replaced by Thomas Fröberg.
Now he is the sports manager for Hockey One and lives in Stockholm.
I don't have the opportunity to go up. It's indeed, but we have some jobs and meetings planned that I must be part of. I will of course try to watch the match and will celebrate in my own way, he says about what could be a May 1st with a gold edge.
"Have got distance"
After a turbulent season last year, with sharp criticism from the supporters, the now 57-year-old Nilsson was fired.
Then he had already initiated contacts with several of the players who were recruited for this season.
But he says that he does not feel involved.
It's been a year, I've got distance and I'm not running around thinking I'm involved in the successes. I just think it's extremely fun and hope they get another gold. We've been longing for this for so many years, says "Skuggan".
The Luleå native made 17 seasons in the top league, is second all-time in SHL with the number of assists, 377, nine behind Johan Davidsson, HV71.
"The building was swaying"
He took three VM silver with Tre Kronor, but above all – he was the team captain in Luleå's gold team in 1996 when Frölunda was defeated.
The gold was harvested on away ground, when Luleå's team landed with a chartered plane at Kallax airport in the middle of the night, around 5,000 people were waiting for the heroes.
It was a bit frightening delight, people were standing and jumping and you felt that the whole building was swaying. It was fantastic, he says.
Do you see similarities between that team and today's?
The similarities are actually that you have a fantastic goalkeeper and that there are incredibly skilled players. We had Jarmo Myllys at the time and now Matteus Ward appears as a real match winner. But hockey then and now differed very much.
Djurgården 16.
Brynäs 13.
Färjestad 10.
IK Göta 9.
Hammarby 8.
AIK and Södertälje 7.
