Sam Hallam is asked who has been the best to beat among all SHL coaches.
The answer comes in a flash.
– It has always been fun to make him a little annoyed and angry, says Hallam in the podcast Släpp Sargen.
Sam Hallam has a touch of legend status in Växjö Lakers, and it is easy to understand considering the journey that the team has made. The Lakers had only played in the SHL for one season when Hallam took over as head coach in the 2012/2013 season. Now they are an established top team with several Swedish Championship golds.
Point out Roger
During the years in Växjö, Hallam has been the Swedish Championship gold winner on three occasions, and it was therefore not very surprising when the news came that he will be the new national team captain for Tre Kronor, and thus Johan Garpenlöv succeeds.
Now there will be no more SHL matches for a while, and some classic coaching duels will disappear from Swedish hockey. In the podcast Släpp Sargen, Hallam gets a straight question about who has been the most comfortable to beat during all the years, and the answer comes in a flash from Hallam, who is now leaving Växjö after almost ten years.
– Roger Rönnberg.
“Fun to piss him off”
Frölunda and Växjö have had several hot dusters in recent years, and Hallam will also miss the duels with the Frölunda coach.
– It is clear that it has developed like this considering that Roger has been there for so long, and I for so long in Växjö. I have the greatest respect for Roger, we are both competitive people, and it’s always fun to make him a little annoyed and pissed. And he probably thinks the same thing about me. But it is more history, that it is built up so that we have been in two successful clubs for such a long time, he says.
Ironically, it was Rönnberg who knocked out Växjö in this year’s playoffs, and thus forced Hallam to an early holiday. But there is nothing that bothers him.
– On the contrary, almost. A couple of years ago so… Now our relationship is so good that I perceived it as respectful for me. I have no problem losing to Roger, even though I really wanted to win. But in a strange way, I almost felt that it was a natural end, he says.
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