There's taking the sport you love seriously, and then there's going completely overboard. This certainly falls in the overboard category. Swedish Hockey League (SHL) team Brynas IF is one loss away from being relegated to HockeyAllsvenskan, that country's second-tier hockey league, for the first time since its inception in 1960. Understandably, fans are disappointed. Some, though, have been taking things way too far.
After losing to Malmo Saturday and going down 3-0 in the best-of-seven SHL qualifying series, Brynas issued a news release stating players and staff had received numerous threats.
"In the past 24 hours, players, leaders and their families have been exposed to threatening situations. Something that is unacceptable, regardless of sporting circumstances.
The club takes the incidents very seriously and they have been reported to the police." -
Brynas Website ADS
A few hours later, Brynas team captain Anton Rodin told
Expressen.se that masked men had shown up on his doorstep and he had to hide his two young children.
"It was hard yesterday, but today I'm very angry. It has gone too far when the children ask why they should play hide and seek in the middle of the night. I had to pick up the children and go upstairs and hide them in a closet in the attic because there are masked men knocking on the door. It's so far from okay."
"It was tough for the children. Being woken up, being pulled out of bed and being pushed into the attic. We had no idea what kind of people were knocking on our door in the middle of the night. You assume the worst when you have children at home. To protect them at all costs."
Rodin added there was damage to his car, but would not go into more detail regarding the incident citing the police investigation. One of the strangest things about it is Rodin isn't playing in the qualifying round after suffering a season-ending injury. He is watching from the stands.
Brodin was a 2nd round draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 2009. He spent some time in the AHL, and eventually played three NHL games for the club before returning to Sweden.
Meanwhile, this isn't the only hockey-related incident causing concern for the SHL. Earlier this month, the President and CEO of Linkoping, Niclas Bjorkman,
resigned following a confrontation with 30-40 fans as he was attempting to leave the arena following a game.ADS
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