Swedish Hockey League odds – Get the Best Odds at SHL
The Swedish Hockey League – SHL
The Swedish Hockey League is one of the most popular hockey leagues in Europe and the world at large. This is evident in the fact that it has previously held the top spot for the most attended hockey league in all of Europe (2011-2012). It is also hugely popular locally, second only to the top tier football league in the country – Allsvenskan.
The Swedish Hockey League, called Svenska Hockeyligan in Swedish, is the top tier professional hockey league in the Swedish Ice Hockey System. It comprises of 14 teams and operates in a system of relegation and promotion with the second division in the league system – HockeyAllsvenskan. This professional league was created in 1975, and since then, Le Mat Trophy has been awarded to the winners of the league's playoffs.
How the Swedish Hockey League operates
The SHL operates in a two-season per year structure – the regular season and the playoffs. The regular season determines the champions of the league and the teams that qualify for the playoffs, while the playoffs determine the winner of the Le Mat Trophy.
SHL Regular Season
In the course of the regular season, which runs from September to March, the 14 teams in the SHL engage each other. Each team has to face every other team in the league in a competition that will require each team to play 52 times.
For every match won in regulation time, the winning team gets 3 points. While matches won during a shootout or overtime earns the winner two points. In the end, the first six teams with the highest points, automatically qualify for the playoffs.
The two bottom teams have to play in the Kvalserien tournament – which is the promotion and relation tournament that decides the teams that qualify to play for the SHL in the next season. They participate in the Kvalserien tournament with four teams from the HockeyAllsvenskan, and only two teams can qualify for the next Swedish Hockey League season.
While the teams in the 7th to 10th position have to play against each other to determine the two teams that get to join the top six in the playoffs.
SHL Playoffs
The playoffs run from March to April annually. Generally, the playoffs are separated into four;
- the eight finals
- quarter-finals
- semi-finals
- finals
The eight finals are played by the teams that finished between 7th and 10th in the regular season. The 7th team gets to play the 10th team, while the 8th and 9th teams face each other.
The two victorious teams after the eight finals, join the six top teams that had an automatic qualification. At this level of the playoff, the teams are paired in a seed-wise manner – the highest seed would play the lowest-ranked seed in the competition.
After that is over, for the semifinals, the teams are re-seeded again. The topmost team still gets to play against the lowest remaining team at that level. The two teams that emerge victorious at this stage, face themselves in the finals.