Hello alla LHCare

This letter is in English as I am at my parents in Ann Arbor Michigan and their computer does not have the last three letters of the Swedish alphabet. Writing in Swedish is hard enough for me yet it becomes even harder if I cannot use three letters.

First I want to send everyone at greeting from the USA. I am here for strictly personal reasons. Cecilia and our three children came for Thanksgiving which was the 23 of November. We have been able to spend quality time with my parents, all of my five siblings (brothers and sister) as well as their children. I see my parents about once a year as they travel often to Linkoping yet we only get to see my siblings about every third year. Therefore this time is important for me as I consider my home to be in Linkoping yet many of my loved ones are still here in the USA.

I have followed our last seven games by internet and can say that it is tough not being at home trying to help. I follow the games through the internet and telephone calls to people at the games. It is certainly very frustrating listening to all the games from a distance. After each game I speak with different people such as Johan Hemlin, both Gunnar and Janne, Christer Mard as well as Anders Maki. All reports say that all players are working hard yet we have not been able to score goals specifically on the power play. However I am not going to analyze our teamâ€™s play from here in Ann Arbor.

I want everyone to know that I am proud that everyone has high expectations of Linkopings Hockey Club and expect our team to win all of our games and always be in first place. However this is not always possible. We do however expect the best work ethic and that our players want to win every game. We have worked hard for many years creating a good team with players that represent LHC in a positive way. Therefore I am not worried about our record during November or our fifth place in the standings.

Our goal as an organization is to always have a team that can win the SM championship. If we give ourselves a chance to win every game and make the playoffs every year we will soon earn our SM-Guld. I hope everyone realizes that there are 11 teams with the same goal as LHC and that winning every game is not as easy as many people make it seem. Therefore I ask you all to see the positives of our first half of our season and realize that the most exciting part of the season is still in front of us.

Everyone in Linkopings HC (including all fans) have a lot of work to do. We are in fifth place with eight points to the first place team and at the same time we only have 12 points down to the ninth place. This gives us every reason to be humble yet positive in our overall performance yet certainly not satisfied. I have confidence in our team and our coaching staff that we will have a positive second half of our season! I ask you all to support us during our run towards the playoffs.

We continually see if there are any players that can help our team and due to injuries we may be forced to bring in one or two new players. However we will only do this if we find the right player that we believe can help our team win games. This is Johanâ€™s job (together with Gunnar and Janne) and he is working hard to see if we can find the right player for our team.

Hopefully all of our flights will be on time and I will be at the game next Thursday against SAIK.

See you soon
Mvh
Mike Helber