PHOTO: Bildbyrån
No individual prices in the TV puck.
Then Jonas Andersson rages.
– You have to be able to handle that pressure if you are going to play hockey, says the SVT expert to Hockeynews.
Since 1959, the TV puck ice hockey tournament has been played. It is a tournament for all district association teams on the youth side. All matches, which are played in two periods, used to be broadcast by SVT. But since 2020, the channel broadcasts from the quarter-finals until the final.
The prices disappeared
The tournament has previously had individual prizes. Stefan Liv’s prize for the best goalkeeper, Sven Tumba’s scholarship for the best forward, and Lill-Strimma’s scholarship for the best defender. The awarding of the individual prizes ended after the tournament in 2019. The hockey association then explained that they think competition is good, but that it “should not affect the well-being of the players” and that hockey should be an environment “where you thrive and feel good”.
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This year’s edition of the TV puck was won by the district association team Stockholm Nord. But the aftermath has been about precisely the lack of the individual prizes.
– The problem here is that they do not differentiate between children’s sports and an elite effort. It is not these prices that are the real problem and I think it is a wrong decision to remove something that is very positive and has ancient traditions, says the SVT expert Jonas Andersson to Hockeynews.
Andersson rages
The former hockey player believes that the pressure will come sooner or later, and that it is just as well for the youngsters to get used to it if they want to bet on a hockey career.
– There will be pressure, but that’s it in elite hockey, elite hockey is about coping with mental pressure and getting help with it. The association’s reason for removing it is that the prices come with a psychological pressure that players have felt bad about, but there you need adults who come in and explain and help and support, you have to be able to handle that pressure if you are going to play hockey at elite level, says Andersson to the hockey site.
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Jonas Andersson thinks it is important to distinguish between children’s sports and elite efforts.
– Elite sports on the children’s side is terrible, then there is topping and stuff that shouldn’t happen, but at this age it’s a different thing. I know that myself, if someone had told me that it wasn’t an elite investment we were doing when I was 15-16 years old, I would have thought it was a caterpillar, it’s underestimating these young players who are so purposeful. So you have to differentiate between children’s activities and elite investment, I am convinced of that.
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