The Smell of Tiger Balm & Glove Sweat!

There is something unique about the smell of hockey equipment. For anyone who has ever lugged around a bag of sweaty, stinky shin pads, elbow pads or gloves, one knows that it can really pick up a raunchy, but enchanting smell.

Last night, sitting two rows behind the Brynäs bench in Gävle, the enchanting waft of hockey equipment made me nostalgic for my worn and torn CCM gloves. Every so often, moist glove sweat mixed with a hint of TigerBalm would breeze by us sitting in the first few rows behind the players' bench of the Läkerol Arena.

The picture above is of Pavel Brendl (#28) and Fredrik Bremberg (#23 white). Brendl's Brynäs absolutely clobbered Bremberg's Djurgården 8-2 in what was a thoroughly enjoyable goal-fest.

Bremberg had a cup of tea with the Edmonton Oilers in 1998-99, appearing in 8 games and registering zero points and 2 penalty minutes. Last year, Bremberg won the Swedish league's scoring race (23G+41A), beating Brendl (34G+23A) by 7 points.

Last night, with his hockey club being savaged, Bremberg 17:27 of ice time amounted to no points and not much more than a nice breakaway. It is perhaps Bremberg's hockey attitude which makes him such an interesting phenomena. I heard his former coach Nicklas Wikegård speak at a conference in late March 2007, where he called Bremberg (paraphrasing) "a lazy floater". One can see why based on last night's presentation. According to Wikegård (who I might add, since having moved to TV, is quickly becoming Sweden's answer to Don Cherry), Bremberg rarely did much of a warm-up, nor did not adhere the team's training regimen, but still, to his then coach's chagrin and amazement, would consistently racked up the points.

His style reminds me of Petr Nedved or Josef Beranek, or even Mario Lemieux could be known to do a good deal of floating during his illustrious career. But if career statistics say anything, it is that hockey sense is certainly more than just skating hard every shift and going hard into the corners, it is being in the right place at the right time. Bremberg's point totals in recent years show that his right place and time happen to be in the Swedish Elite Series and not the NHL.

Brendl on the other hand is a big, wiley, creative player with a hard shot. Pavel played his junior hockey with the Calgary Hitmen and then about 70 NHL games with the Flyers (50), Hurricanes(26) and Coyotes(2). He's a bit above average in size 187cm (6'2") and 92kg (203lbs), at least for the Swedish Elite Series, and is often all over the ice. I would say that he displays a typical Czech-style, yet with a Canadian pedigree. Why he never hung on in the NHL is tough to fathom.

Brendl's Brynäs had full control of last night's contest. He had 2pts (1G+1A), but it was his 8 shots, many of which from the point on the PP, which tell the story about his sense of smell for the net.

One final note: above is Tommy Sjödin (standing). He is Sweden's answer to Chris Chelios. Sjödin was born in 1965 and like a bag of old hockey equiment, he is still lugging around the league. He is hardly a fast, nor smooth skater, though he is one of those stabil and reliable defensemen. More to it, he is perhaps the soul of the Brynäs team; seen here chatting with Andreas Dackell (#12 on his helmet). He is one of those invaluable elements in hockey, like a good pair of gloves: worn, but have just the right smell.