Djurgårdens IF Hockey

Djurgårdens IF Ishockeyförening (English: Djurgården IF Ice Hockey Club) is a professional ice hockey team based in Stockholm, Sweden, affiliated with the Djurgårdens IF umbrella organization. Djurgården is the most successful Swedish hockey team of all time, as 16-time Swedish Champions, 9-time runners-up, and leaders of the marathon table for the top flight of Swedish hockey, as well as two-time European Cup winners. Following two seasons in second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan, Djurgården has been promoted for play in the SHL for the 2014–15 season.

Djurgården's home arena is Hovet, with a capacity of 8,094, but high-profile matches such as derbies against AIK and some playoff games are played in the Ericsson Globe with its larger capacity of 13,850.

History
Djurgårdens IF was founded 12 March 1891 at a café at the address of Alberget 4A on the island Djurgården. Ice hockey was introduced in Sweden in 1921, and Djurgården's hockey section was formed in 1922 with the help of IK Göta player Wilhelm Arwe. The club participated in its first Swedish championship the same year, being beaten by Hammarby in the semifinals. Djurgården's team consisted of only six players but was reinforced with five new players for the following season. The club managed to reach the final during this season against IK Göta, which proved to be too hard and Djurgården lost 3–0 at Stockholms Stadion. The procedure was repeated in 1924 and Djurgården had to wait until 1926 to finally lift the Le Mat trophy for the first time, after a 7–1 victory against VIK Västerås HK. Djurgården's achievements came fast, and four Djurgården players were named for the Swedish roster in the 1924 Winter Olympics. At the 1926 Swedish Championship, the team contained three of those players, Wilhelm Arwe, Ernst Karlberg and Ruben Allinger.

In the beginning of the 1930s, the success Djurgården had during the 1920s began to fade. High costs and low attendance figures took their toll on the department, and the club itself. At the same time, no new leaders or players joined Djurgården. When the team was relegated to the second division in 1934, the hockey department was dissolved. Instead, focus was moved to the bandy department and given the hockey department's resources.

The department was restarted in 1938 in the sixth division (Klass VI) and the team consisted of former players like Einar "Stor-Klas" Svensson and Gustaf "Lulle" Johansson. The team only played three league games during this season; but this was enough to win the sixth division and get the team promoted to the fifth division. Problems arose when the club tried to recruit new players. Those who were asked to join the team thought the inquiry was some kind of joke. However, the club managed to gather enough players to take part in the following season's matches. These players had mainly played bandy and football prior to joining the hockey team. The plan for the coming seasons was to get promoted every year until the club reached the highest division again. Thus the 1940s consisted mainly of climbing in the league system.

For three years in a row from the fifth division, Skuru IK was always ahead of Djurgården in the league table. However, as two teams were promoted from every division, this was of no concern. The 1942–43 season was never completed due to warm weather, but since the national division 2 were expanded to six leagues for the 1943–44 season, both Djurgården and Skuru were promoted anyway. This meant that Djurgården now had left the local Stockholm leagues and advanced to the national leagues. Djurgården would have to wait until 1947 to finally win a division again, only to be beaten by Atlas Diesel and Västerås SK in the promotion playoffs. For the 1948–49 season, the team was finally back in the highest league, and finished second behind Hammarby. No Swedish championship was played this season due to warm weather, and the only available hockey rink at Stockholms Stadion couldn't suffice. The hockey department had now trained their own talents, who began to replace many of the players still playing for either the bandy or the football department.

The 1950s began well for Djurgården. While the team couldn't beat Hammarby in the league, the Swedish Championship was a different matter. After winning on walk over against Forshaga IF, the team advanced to the semifinals to meet Hammarby. The dominants of the 1930s and the 1940s were beaten 3–1 after one goal each by twins Hans and Stig Andersson. Djurgården's final opponent Mora IK proved to be an easy task. Gösta "Lill-Lulle" Johansson scored three goals and in the end, Mora was beaten 7–2. This was the first Swedish Championship for the club in 24 years.

The Swedish championship was remade for the 1952–53 season. Instead of a single-elimination tournament with a total of eight teams, the winners of the south and north divisions met each other twice to decide the championship. Djurgården's opponent in the final were Gävle Godtemplares IK; the first game ended with a 5–1 victory, and the second game ended with a 1–1 draw. Led by Sven "Tumba" Johansson's 19-goal season, Djurgården went on to win the south division by winning all ten league games in the 1954–55 season. Both finals in 1955 were played at Johanneshovs IP and Djurgården won both games against Hammarby IF, 6–3 in the first and 11–2 in the second final. The second final is still a record for the amount of goals scored in a Swedish championship final.

Djurgården suffered from economical problems after the 2004–05 Elitserien season and lost 16 players before the following season. The club had to rely players from the junior teams and could only acquire new players who were rejected by other clubs due to the poor economy. Djurgården's goal for the season was to stay clear of the relegation positions in the league table, which the team achieved. However for the first time in 20 years, Djurgården was left outside the playoffs. For the 2007–08 season, they changed their official home ice from the Stockholm Globe Arena to their smaller, former home arena, Hovet. Nevertheless, a significant minority of the games was scheduled for the larger arena, just like some games were played on Hovet during the Globe era. Djurgården reached the playoffs, finishing seventh in the regular season. The runner-up of the regular season, Linköpings HC, chose Djurgården and knocked them out of the playoffs, 4–1 in games. During the 2008–09 season all games were played at Hovet. Djurgården was often close to the relegation spots. Five straight wins after new year put Djurgården on safe ground. Although, as the teams on the last playoff-spots kept winning, the team ended up on 10th position in the league table.

The 2009–10 season began with the Nordic Trophy pre-season tournament, which Djurgården won. Djurgården finished second in the league and lost the finals to HV71, Djurgården won the first final 4–3 but lost 4–2 in matches. Five of six finals went to overtime. This was the first finals for Djurgården since the 2001 playoffs.

After struggling through the 2011–12 season, Djurgården finished eleventh and had to play in the 2012 Kvalserien. Subsequently the team was relegated to the second-tier league HockeyAllsvenskan for the 2012–13 season after failing to make the top two spots in the Kvalserien. This ended a 35-year run of consecutive Elitserien seasons for Djurgården. As a result, Djurgården fired general manager Jan Järlefelt and replaced him by Charles Berglund. Big budget cuts were also made, the player salary budget was cut in half. Djurgården set the goal to return to Elitserien immediately the following season. The team reached fifth place in the regular season, and Djurgården had to play qualification games for the 2013 Kvalserien. However, Djurgården failed to reach the final spot and the season was over.

The team was renewed for the 2013–14 season, with veteran players Kristofer Ottosson, Jimmie Ölvestad, Fredrik Bremberg and Christian Eklund retiring. Despite a rough period in November with six straight losses, Djurgården finished the regular season on third place in the league table, which guaranteed a spot in the 2014 Kvalserien. The fight for second place after already qualified Örebro was close, and had to be decided in the last round of Kvalserien. Djurgården managed to grab the spot with 17 points, the same amount as Rögle but with better goal difference. Djurgården was once again a team of Sweden's top tier league.

The Swedish Hockey League board stirred up a controversy with the decision to redistribute 6 million SEK of TV sponsorship from Djurgården to newly relegated AIK IF in May 2014. AIK received the money to ease the transition from SHL to HockeyAllsvenskan. This was widely criticised by Djurgården, fans and clubs in HockeyAllsvenskan.

Trophies and awards

 * Le Mat Trophy (16): 1926, 1950, 1954, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1983, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2000, 2001
 * IIHF European Cup (2): 1991, 1992

Season-by-season results
''This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by Djurgården. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Djurgårdens IF Hockey seasons. Code explanation; GP&mdash;Games played, W&mdash;Wins, L&mdash;Losses, T&mdash;Tied games, GF&mdash;Goals for, GA&mdash;Goals against, Pts&mdash;Points. Top Scorer: Points (Goals+Assists)